Thorn /(?)/

Thorn

n.
  1. A hard and sharp-pointed projection from a woody stem; usually, a branch so transformed; a spine.
  2. Any shrub or small tree which bears thorns; especially, any species of the genus Crataegus, as the hawthorn, whitethorn, cockspur thorn. (Bot.)
  3. Fig.: That which pricks or annoys as a thorn; anything troublesome; trouble; care.
    There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me.
    — 2 Cor. xii. 7.
    The guilt of empire, all its thorns and cares, Be only mine.
    — Southern.
  4. The name of the Anglo-Saxon letter , capital form . It was used to represent both of the sounds of English th, as in thin, then. So called because it was the initial letter of thorn, a spine.

Phrases & Compounds
Thorn apple
Jamestown weed.
Thorn broom
a shrub that produces thorns.
Thorn hedge
a hedge of thorn-bearing trees or bushes.
Thorn devil
See Moloch, 2.
Thorn hopper
a tree hopper (Thelia crataegi) which lives on the thorn bush, apple tree, and allied trees.

Thorn

v. t.
  1. To prick, as with a thorn. [Poetic]
    I am the only rose of all the stock That never thorn'd him.