1. A common thorny shrub, bearing white flowers before the leaves and very small dark purple plums; called also the Sloe (Prunus spinosa): the name is probably due to the dark color of the naked branches, with which the white flowers strongly contrast. Its wood is prized for walking-sticks.
1388. Wyclif, Dan. xiii. 58. Vndur a blak thorn [1382 plum tree].
1496. Bk. St. Albans, Fysshynge, 8. Take a fayr shote of blacke-thorn; crabbe tree; medeler.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. xlvii. 721. The wilde Plumme tree, Blacke thorne, and Sloo tree.
1634. Habington, Castara, II. § 2. xix. Love shall in that tempestuous showre Her brightest blossome like the blacke-thorne show.
1842. Tennyson, May Queen, II. 8. I shall never see The blossom on the blackthorn, the leaf upon the tree.
1882. Garden, 8 April, 241/1. One of the best flowering shrubs we know is the double-flowered Blackthorn.
b. A walking-stick or cudgel made of the stem of this shrub.
1849. W. H. Maxwell, Stories Waterloo. An hundred blackthorns rattled above my head.
c. attrib., as in blackthorn leaves, winter.
1789. G. White, Selborne (1813), II. 292. Blackthorn … usually blossoms while cold N.E. winds blow; so that the harsh rugged weather obtaining at this season, is called by the country people, blackthorn-winter.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, xv. Tea, madam! I saw none. Ash leaves and black-thorn leaves were brought in.
2. U.S. A species of hawthorn (Cratægus tomentosa), also called Pear-thom. Webster 1864, and Miller, Plant-n., 1884. In W. Indies, a species of Acacia (A. Farnesiana).
