Forms: 1 brǽr, brér, 2–3 brer, 3–9 brere, 4–5 breyer, 4–8 breere, 5–7 breer, 5 breyr, 6 breare, breir, 6–7 bryer, 6–8 bryar, 6– brier, briar. [OE.: WS. brǽr, Angl. brér, of unknown origin. The direct representative of the OE. and ME. word is brere, still usual in the dialects, and retained by the poets from Chaucer and Spenser. The rise of the variant brier in the 16th c. is not easy to account for, especially as the spelling bryer shows that this never rhymed with bier, tier, but with dyer, crier. But the phonetic change was exactly parallel to, and contemporaneous with that of ME. frere, freyre, to fryer, frier, FRIAR. Briar is a later variant (cf. lier, liar), and is now equally common. The word is historically a monosyllable, but poets have often made two syllables of it, a pronunciation supported by the spelling briar.]
1. A prickly, thorny bush or shrub in general; formerly including the bramble, but now usually confined to wild rose bushes.
α. Form brere (breer, brear).
c. 1000. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 269. Tribulus, bræmbelbrær.
c. 1000. Saxon Lecchd., II. 96. Brer þe hioran on weaxaþ.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 276. Breres bereð rosen, & berien.
1297. R. Glouc., 331. As þe rose spryng of þe brer.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1809. Blake-beries þat on breres growen.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 674. Doun in the breres.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clii. (1495), 704. An hegge … of breers, of thornes, and trees made.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 49. Brere, or brymmeylle.
1525–30. More, De Quat. Noviss., Wks. 74/2. Foregrowen with nettels, breers, and other euil weedes.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 119. The fruite of the brere called an Hep.
1595. Spenser, Sonn., xxvi. Sweet is the Rose, but growes upon a brere. Ibid. (1596), F. Q., I. x. 35. Ragged breares.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., VI. i. A pipe of oat or breare.
1613. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. i. (1772), II. 32. ’Mong roots, and breers, and thorns.
1747. W. Mason, Musæus. Ne bush, ne breere, but learnt thy roundelay.
1830. Tennyson, Poems, 76. They … from the blosmy brere Call to the fleeting year.
1865. [see 2].
β. Form brier (bryer).
[a. 1400[?]. Chester Pl., 74. A horned weither … Amonge the breyers tyed is he.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 12. Thystyls and breyr, yei grete plente.]
1545. Brinklow, Lament. (1874), 92. Do briers bringe forth figges, and thorns grapes?
1579. E. K., in Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., Feb. Argt. The Oake and the Bryer [1597 brier].
1611. Bible, Isa. lv. 13. In stead of the brier shall come vp the Myrtle tree.
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, II. 54. Throwing him among Bryers.
1720. Watts, Mor. Songs, Sluggard, 3. I passed by his garden, and saw the wild brier.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. II. v. 367. Overgrown with briers and brambles.
1822. Byron, Werner, III. i. 159. The doubts that rise like briers in our path.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 27. I was … torn with briers.
γ. Form briar (bryar).
1552. Huloet, Bryar … a lytle or yonge bryer.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, IV. iv. 32. Summer, When Briars shall haue leaues as well as thornes, And be as sweet as sharpe.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 56, ¶ 3. He walked through Briars and Brambles.
1810. Southey, Kehama, XIII. v. Nor weeds nor briars deform’d the natural floor.
1863. Stanley, Jew. Ch., xv. 349. The Briar, the Bramble, the Thorn that crept along the barren side of the mountain.
b. techn. The stock or stem of a wild rose, on which a garden rose is grafted.
1574. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Ep. (1577), 125. Honour is ioyned to vertue as ye bryer is to the rose.
1858. Glenny, Gard. Every-day Bk., 213/2. Roses worked on Briars are very apt to lose by the growth of the stock.
c. With qualifications: Sweet Brier, a species of wild rose (R. rubiginosa) with fragrant leaves and shoots; Austrian Brier (R. lutea), a climbing yellow rose; also Green Brier (Smilax rotundifolia); Sensitive Brier, the genus Schronkia.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., III. xi. 36. A sweet breare.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 562. There is also upon Sweet, or other Bryer, a fine Tuft … of Moss.
1728. Thomson, Spring, 105. The verdant maze Of sweet briar hedges.
1861. Delamer, Fl. Gard., 138. As yet, a double Austrian briar is a desideratum.
1882. Garden, 27 May, 373/1. Austrian Copper Brier is arranged in a low silver-gilt cup with small twigs of Sweet Brier.
2. Brier-bushes collectively.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 924 (Fairf.). Brere [Cott. brembel] and þornes hit sal þe ȝilde.
1382. Wyclif, Hosea x. 8. Cloote and breere shal stye on the auters of hem.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. i. 110. Through bogge, through bush, through brake, through bryer.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, xviii. Build their mossy homes in field and brere.
1865. S. Evans, Bro. Fabian’s MS., 59. They dolve a grave … And covered it with brere.
3. a. A branch or twig of a brier. † b. A thorn of a brier (obs.).
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VII. 402. Hit hadde be wexed with a wips of breres.
a. 1400. Rom. Rose, 858. Hir flesh so tendre, That with a brere smale and slendre Men myght it cleve.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb. (1702), I. Pref. 7. A Crown of Briers and Thorns.
1818. Byron, Beppo, iv. Walk about begirt with briars.
4. fig. (pl.) Troubles, difficulties, vexations: in modern use with conscious reference to the literal sense. Hence † To leave in the briers, be in the briers, get out of the briers (all obs.).
1509. Hawes, Examp. Virt., xiv. 298. Fatal brerys whiche be contraryous.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 12 b. The bryers and perylles of this worlde.
1563. Foxe, A. & M., I. 208/1. Leaving the Bishops, and such others, in the Briers.
1575. Churchyard, Chippes (1817), 95. Now is hee free, that hapneth in the breares.
1625. Sanderson, Serm. (1681), I. 133. Helping a great offender out of the bryars.
1674. Earl Kincardin, in Lauderd. Papers (1885), III. xlv. 75. Wee … were glade to get out of the briers at that rate.
1770. Monthly Rev., 35. The Netherlanders … had freed themselves from the Romish briars.
1794. Blake, Songs Exper., Gard. Love, 12. Priests … binding with briars my joys and desires.
5. attrib. and Comb., as brier-ball, -berry, -bush, -flower, -leaf, -stalk; † brier-bell, the bedeguar of the wild rose; brier-coal, ? charcoal made of twigs, etc.; † brier-crook, an implement for removing briers; brier-rose, brier-tree, the Dog-rose.
1694. W. Westmacott, Script. Herb., 30. *Briar-balls dried and powdered.
1728. Bradley, Dict. Bot., s.v. Cynosbatos, This Rose is apt to bring now and then … a *Bryar-Bell, or a Spongiola, which is a Bunch of Threds, of a red Colour.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 577. The latest [Fruits] are … Grapes, Nuts, Quinces, Almonds, Sloes, *Brier-berries.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 118 b. Of the *Brere bushe or Hep tre or Brere tre, Rubus canis.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Carçal, a brier bush, Rubetum.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 775. Small-coal or *Briar-coal poured upon Char coal make them last longer.
1483. Cath. Angl., 43. A *Brerecruke, falcastrum.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 791. Or ble as þe *brere flour.
1766. Wesley, Jrnl., 17 Sept. Applying a *brier-leaf.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xi. The *brier-rose fell in streamers green.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. II. 481. The briar-rose, Rustling outside within the flowery close.
1882. Garden, 10 June, 411/3. Bouquets of pink Brier Roses.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 10. Bring forth a *bryer stalke.
