thorn tree

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English thornetre; equivalent to thorn +‎ tree.

Noun

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thorn tree

  1. A common name for any tree which has leaves like thorns, especially the acacia.
    • 1811, “Visit to the Great Namaquas”, in The Missionary Herald at Home and Abroad[1], volume 6, page 466:
      They then came together to hear the preaching of the Gospel; but I postponed it till the evening, because I was then exceedingly wearied. The captain shewed me a large old thorn tree for a lodging.
    • 2007 April 1, Thomas Harlan, The Shadow of Ararat: Book One of 'The Oath of Empire'[2], page 294:
      Thirty feet below her, where the Persians were crashing through the brush, the streambed kinked to the left side of the ravine and ran under an enormous thorn tree with a thick base.
    • 2010 August 3, David Bennun, Tick Bite Fever[3], Random House, page 109:
      I WOULD HAVE been nine or ten when my mother chased me up a thorn tree with a ceremonial hippo-hide whip. What my crime was, I forget. My mother was, and remains, a woman of exceptional forbearance. I must have done something so obnoxious as to beggar belief.

Translations

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