thorn
(θɔːʳn )
Word forms: thorns
1. countable noun
Thorns are the sharp points on some plants and trees, for example on a rose bush.
Roses will always have thorns but with care they can be avoided.
Synonyms: prickle, spike, spine, barb
2. variable noun
A thorn or a thorn bush or a thorn tree is a bush or tree which has a lot of thorns on it.
...the shade of a thorn bush.
...the thorn and bramble thickets.
3. thorn in your side/flesh phrase
If you describe someone or something as a thorn in your side or a thorn in your flesh, you mean that they are a continuous problem to you or annoy you.
She's a real thorn in his side.
The Party was a thorn in the flesh of his coalition.
Image of thorn
© Sarah2, Shutterstock
Idioms:
a thorn in someone's side
someone or something that continually annoys or causes trouble for someone else
She has become a thorn in the side of the government since publishing a number of reports pointing out that public cash was being mishandled.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Translations:
Chinese: 刺
Japanese: とげ
- act of resistance
- act of revenge
- act of sabotage
- act of solidarity
- act of subversion
- act of treachery
- act of treason
- act of valour
- act of vandalism
- act of vengeance
- act of worship
- actor
- actor performs
- actor plays
- act out
- act promptly
- act properly
- act quickly
- act rationally
- act responsibly
- actress
- act strangely
- act suspiciously
- act swiftly
- act the goat