BRIER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Brier

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/brˈaɪər/ Listen

noun

Briar, Brier n.

1.

A plant with a slender woody stem bearing stout prickles; especially, species of Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax.

2.

Fig.: Anything sharp or unpleasant to the feelings. "The thorns and briers of reproof."

Brier root, the root of the southern Smilax laurifolia and Smilax Walteri; used for tobacco pipes. See also 2nd brier.

Cat brier, Green brier, several species of Smilax (Smilax rotundifolia, etc.)

Sweet brier (Rosa rubiginosa). See Sweetbrier.

Yellow brier, the Rosa Eglantina.

Brier n.

1.

The white heath Erica arborea.

2.

A smoking pipe made of the root of the brier (1). Note: Brierroot seems to have been used formerly as a term meaning root of the Smilax laurifolia and is now defined as root of the Erica arborea. Not clear when this changed. PJC.

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Etymology of 'Brier'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Brier" Quotes from Famous Books

... the German army, realizing that, if captured, we should undoubtedly be sent either backward or forward along the German line of communication in conquered Belgium. Once within the German outposts we pleaded like Brer Rabbit not to be thrown into the German brier patch. So of course we landed in it. After a few days in Brussels they shipped us Eastward to Aix-la-Chapelle by way ...

— The Log of a Noncombatant • Horace Green

... cloak (of a monk), And didst confront invisible potentates, Having received instead (of thine own armour) a strong panoply from God. Therefore I will construct for thee this tomb as a pearl oyster shell, Or shell of the purple dye, or bud on a thorny brier. O my pearl, my purple, rose of another clime, Even though being plucked thou art pressed by the stones So as to cause me sheddings of tears. Yet thou thyself, both living and beholding the living God, As a mind pure from material passions, Prepare for me again thy home. Martha,[254] ...

— Byzantine Churches in Constantinople - Their History and Architecture • Alexander Van Millingen

... discussed the burglary at the Hall with Styles. As Mrs. Styles' topic of conversation was Drake—Drake as a lad and a young man—Nell was in no hurry to go; but suddenly she remembered Falconer—he might be wanting her—and she got up and went to Drake, who, his beloved brier in his mouth, leaned back in an easy-chair and talked to the farmer as if time were of no consequence. He sprang ...

— Nell, of Shorne Mills - or, One Heart's Burden • Charles Garvice

... walk, sir?" She turned into a narrow path in the shadow of arches, clothed by a great Austrian brier, on which here and there a yellow flame still glowed. "Mr. Boyce—when I meet you in company you shrink and cower detestably; when I meet you alone, you fence with me impudently enough and shrewdly; and always ...

— The Highwayman • H.C. Bailey

... slow and painful. Dangling brier vines drew blood from arms and face, and sharp thorns repeatedly lacerated hands and knees. At each move forward he had to pause and remove the dead branches and twigs from his path lest their cracking should ...

— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

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