Dictionary

sweetbrier en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From sweet + brier.

Meanings

1. A Eurasian rose (Rosa rubiginosa, syn. Rosa eglanteria), having prickly stems, fragrant leaves, pink flowers, and red hips.
   • Is it some ill-fed village hound yielding to the instinct of the chase? or the lost pig which is said to be in these woods, whose tracks I saw after the rain? It comes on apace; my sumachs and sweet-briers tremble. 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:
   • But some woods are more coquettish in their habits; and the breath of the forest of Mormal, as it came aboard upon us that showery afternoon, was perfumed with nothing less delicate than sweetbrier. 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC:

Forms

Synonyms

eglantine