briar

1 of 2

noun (1)

bri·​ar ˈbrī(-ə)r 

variants or less commonly brier

plural briars also briers

1

: a plant (such as a rose, blackberry, or greenbrier) having a usually woody and thorny or prickly stem

a thicket of briars

… head up an almost invisible trail along the left bank, through young pines and briars.

—Robert F. Jones

see also briar patch

2

a

: a mass of briars

… threading his way with perfect skill between tree-trunks, jumping over bush and briar and the smaller streams …

—C. S. Lewis

… volunteers methodically searching through the briar and trees …

—Roy Bragg

b

: a branch or twig of a briar

With my pair of brush cutters that I always carried I cut away enough of the long briars to provide an opening for me to sit comfortably in.

—Jean Solbert

briary

ˈbrī(-ə)r-ē 

adjective

briar

2 of 2

noun (2)

variants or briar pipe

plural briars or briar pipes

: a tobacco pipe made from a woody root outgrowth of a shrub-like Mediterranean heath (Erica arborea)

He grinned again and disappeared in a great cloud of pipe smoke. I pulled out my briar and joined him.

—Marshall Harrison

Spelling extracts a black briar pipe from his dinner jacket, draws his courtiers closer and says in a tiny voice, "I hate parties. What am I doing here?"

—Mary Murphy

Examples of briar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Oftentimes, these fill up with briars, brambles, grasses, and even forbs. —Josh Honeycutt, Outdoor Life, 14 Nov. 2024

The cabin also features dark briar wood trim and door panels and headrests embroidered with a design that combines the Maserati trident with the sun from the Tignanello bottle label. —Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 1 July 2024

No race in the world is quite like Barkley, which forces runners to navigate through woods and briars without the support of phones, GPS trackers or regular course markings. —George Ramsay, CNN, 6 Apr. 2024

And in animal news, residents of Springtown, Texas were able to rescue a pig that was trapped in a briar parch after one resident offered a six pack of beer and $100 to whoever could catch it. —Candi Bolden, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Feb. 2024

These would be great for any hunter who lives in an area filled with dense thorns and briars. —The Editors, Field & Stream, 1 Nov. 2023

Thorns and briars decorate the dial, which comes alive with the press of a pusher at 8 o’clock. —Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 7 Aug. 2023

To prevent calls, strikers, shells, and other items from falling out when belly crawling or maneuvering through brambles and briars, look for pockets with a magnetic or zipper closure. —Justin Park, Popular Mechanics, 25 May 2023

Roses have thorns, and this superbloom has briars too. —Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2023

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English brer, brere, going back to Old English brēr, brǣr, of uncertain origin

Note: The noun briar belongs to a small set of words in which Middle English ę̄ has been raised to ī, whence [ai] in present-day English. These words are all, with the exception of briar, of French origin: friar, quire entry 1, choir entry 1, contrive, umpire entry 1, dice. See hypothesized explanations of this change in E. J. Dobson, English Pronunciation 1500-1700, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1968), vol. 2, pp. 655-58.

Noun (2)

short for briar pipe, from briar "wood of the heath plant Erica arborea," borrowed (with conformation to briar entry 1) from French bruyère "the heath plant Erica arborea," going back to Old French bruiere, bruere "moorland covered with heath, the heath plant Erica arborea," going back to Vulgar Latin *brūcāria, from *brūcus "heath plant" (borrowed from Gaulish *wroikos) + Latin -āria -ary entry 1 — more at erica

Note: The meaning of the derivative *brūcāria must initially have been "place covered with *brūcus," but early on in Old French it was applied to the plant itself. The simplex *brūcus is attested as Old Occitan bruc, bru, breu, Catalan bruc, Upper Italian (Piedmont) brü, (Milan) brüg. A tenth-century botanical vocabulary (see Corpus glossariorum Latinorum vol. 3, p. 587) has the gloss brucus : ramnus [Greek rhámnos "thorny shrub"]. The treatment of the diphthong (*oi > *ū) in the passage from Celtic to Vulgar Latin is idiosyncratic; it seems unlikely to have any connection to the monophthongization of oe (> ū) in classical Latin.

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

1882, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing briar

• briar patch
• briar pipe

Kids Definition

briar

1 of 2 noun

bri·​ar

variants or brier

ˈbrī(-ə)r

: a plant (as a rose) with a thorny or prickly usually woody stem

also : a mass or twig of these

briary adjective

briar

2 of 2 noun

variants or brier

: a pipe for smoking tobacco made from the root or stem of a European heath

Etymology

Noun

Old English brēr "thorny plant"

Noun

short for briar pipe, from briar "wood of the European heath," from French bruyère "heath"