Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A thorny deciduous Eurasian shrub (Prunus spinosa) having white flowers and small, bluish-black, plumlike fruits used chiefly for flavoring alcoholic beverages such as sloe gin. Also called sloe.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The sloe, Prunus spinosa. See sloe.
- n. A walking-stick made of the stem of this shrub.
Wiktionary
- n. A large shrub or small tree, Prunus spinosa, that is native to Europe, western Asia, and north Africa. It has a dark bark and bears thorns.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A spreading thorny shrub or small tree (Prunus spinosa), with blackish bark, and bearing little black plums, which are called sloes; the sloe.
- n. A species of Cratægus or hawthorn (Cratægus tomentosa). Both are used for hedges.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a thorny Eurasian bush with plumlike fruits
- n. erect and almost thornless American hawthorn with somewhat pear-shaped berries
Examples
“But once the plant has flowered, the weather then turns cold, a period known as the "blackthorn winter".”
“Linnaeus dubbed blackthorn Prunus spinosa because everything about it is prickly, tart, sour and generally stroppy.”
“Even the aid of the "blackthorn" was occasionally invoked as an effective instrument for securing correction or impressing conviction.”
“I spared most of it, because blackthorn makes a magnificent show of snowy blossom when the cold north-east winds blow in late March, known as the blackthorn winter’.”
“And it has been a fantastic year for fruits, with hawthorns, hollies and blackthorn producing terrific crops of berries.”
The Guardian: Plantwatch: Autumn arrives with brilliant colour and a bumper crop of berries
“There are still some fat, red berries among the hawthorns, though, and blackthorn bushes have their own blue-black berries known as sloes, which make delicious sloe gin.”
The Guardian: Plantwatch: Traveller's joy and old man's beard herald Father Christmas
“A tangle of blackthorn grows in the sheltered "v" and the first scattering of white flowers star its dark uncompromising branches.”
“He turned his arm toward her, pulling the torn cloth from the spot on his bicep that had borne the cut of the blackthorn hours earlier.”
“Around small pastures the leaves on hazel bushes are already turning yellow and, on untrimmed hawthorn and blackthorn, there are reddening haws and purple-green sloes.”
“It is said that towards the end of March there is often a period of fine, sunny and warm weather, which brings the blackthorn into bloom.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘blackthorn’.
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black phrases/words
Tolkien worked in the black section
of the dictionary at one point in his lifeblack-about, Black Act, black afraid, black Africa, black African, black amber, Black America, Black American, black and blae, black and blue, black angry, black ant and 578 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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Keeping Secrets
Words of 10 letters, all different, can be used for encrypting, pretty securely, such things as PINs and passwords. The fly in the ointment, for me, in keeping track of them is I've got to write '...
lumberjack, birthplace, whiskeybar, vanquished, metaphysic, precaution, quizmaster, dumbwaiter, thumbscrew, blacksmith, wholegrain, wanderlust and 105 more...
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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Black or White
black and white, snow-white, coal-black, blacksmith, whitesmith, blackball, white-box testing, Blackberry, white pages, black book, white paper, blacklist and 107 more...
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roseandivy's list
mooncalf, wonted, gibbet, artless, noontide, blithe, glitterati, vorpal, soporific, moxie, pilfer, betwixt and between and 263 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (B)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
balcony, bailey, baguette, bairn, balalaika, baldric, balefire, baby's breath, ballet, balm of gilead, balsam, baluster and 188 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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I like: B
babylon, bacchus, balkans, basilica, bavaria, behemoth, belfast, berlin, beyond the pale, bifrost, bifurcate, bismarck and 24 more...
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ogham
birch, rowan, alder, willow, ash, hawthorn, oak, holly, hazel, apple, blackthorn, elder and 79 more...
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B
Tweets
Looking for tweets for blackthorn.
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