a. [OE. þorniʓ, f. THORN sb. + -iʓ, -Y. Cf. MHG. dornic.]
1. Abounding in, characterized by, or consisting of thorns or spines; spiny, prickly.
a. 1023. Wulfstan, Hom., xlviii. (Napier), 246. ʓeheʓa þine earan mid þorniʓum heʓe.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 134. Heo makieð frommard hore nest—softe wiðuten, & þorni wiðinnen.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xix. (Bodl. MS.). Pe Cameles mete is þorny and harde.
1456. Coventry Leet Bk., 291. Weryng þe Thorny crowne yn worship of Jhesu.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Ind. ii. 59. Daphne roming through a thornie wood.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 490. On Shrubs they browze, and … thorny Brambles crop.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lxix. 6. I found a wood with thorny boughs.
b. Of an animal (or a part of one): Having thorn-like organs or appendages; spiny. See also 4.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., VI. lx. Sea Porcupine…. This thorny Fish is a sort of Sea Hedge-hog.
1743. Zollman, in Phil. Trans., XLII. 463. Those Caterpillars which, from the Figure and the Stiffness of their Hairs, have been called the Thorny ones.
1756. Amory, Buncle (1825), I. 250. The perch [with] the thorny fins on its back.
2. Abounding in thorn-bearing or prickly plants; overgrown with thorns or brambles. Also fig.
Thorny ground, fig. after the parable of the sower, Matt. xiii. 7, etc. Often attrib.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 342. Se yrðling lufað ðone æcer, ðe æfter ðornum … wæstmas aʓifð, swiðor þonne he lufiʓe ðone ðe ðorniʓ næs, ne wæstmbære ne bið.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 52. This gat es stany and thornye.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., viii. 19 (Harl. MS.). Þe wey toward þe Cite was stony, þorny, and scroggy.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. iv. 67. The thornie Wood, Which … Must by the Roots be hew’ne vp yet ere Night.
1657. J. Watts, Dipper Sprinkled, 93. I was a Highway side Hearer, a Thorny-ground Auditor.
1735. Somerville, Chace, I. 259. He … in the thorny Brake Torn and embarrass’d bleeds.
1799. Mary Titherington, Diary, in Life, 13. I am but too much a thorny-ground hearer.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 150. There are lots of game here, and a nice thorny country.
3. fig. a. Pricking or piercing to the mind; full of points painful or wounding to the feelings; painful, distressing; harassing, vexatious, irritating.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xvii. 36. All þe thorny & þe lairy besynes of þis warld.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (R.). It was easily seen it was a very thorny abode he made there.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 94. The thorny point of bare distresse, hath tane from me the shew Of smooth ciuility.
1728. Young, Love Fame, V. 252. Thorny care, and rank and stinging hate.
1868. Lynch, Rivulet, CXL. vi. That thorny cares may yield sweet fruits.
b. Full of points of contention or difficulty; difficult to handle; delicate, ticklish.
1653. trans. Hales’ Dissert. de Pace, x. 43. In these so subtil and thorny explications, if they … chance to erre, shall they presently be termed the enemies of God and Christ?
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethics, 25. Prudence is that knowledge, by which we guide our selves in thorny and uncertain affairs.
1793. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 133. This American is an ugly and thorny affair.
1831. Scott, Jrnl., 13 March. I have finally arranged a thorny transaction.
1907. Athenæum, 25 May, 638/1. Several of the thorniest questions which have perplexed both ancient and modern logicians.
4. a. In the names of species or varieties of plants, animals, or shells, characterized by having thorns or spines: prickly, spiny; as thorny acacia, asparagus, clam, germander, lobster, rest-harrow.
Also thorny apple = THORN-APPLE; thorny broom, (a) the petty whin, Genista anglica, (b) the common whin, furze, or gorse; thorny oyster = thorn-oyster (THORN sb. 8); thorny palm, the prickly palm of the W. Indies, Bactrio Plumierana; thorny trefoil, a thorny shrub of the Mediterranean region, Fagonia Cretica; thorny woodcock, a shell of the Indian Ocean, Murex tenuispina, with long thin closely set spines. (See also 5 b.)
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., vii. 239. An open grassy meadow … bordered by willow trees and groves of the *thorny acacia [A. horrida, Dornboom].
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. lxxxvii. 441. The Names … *Thornie apples, Prickle apples, and Stramonia.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food Man, 187. The *thorny asparagus,… beset with sharp spines.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, III. xviii. 1140. This *thorney Broome is taken for Theophrastus his Scorpius, which Gaza nameth Nepa.
1822. Hortus Anglicus, II. 81. T[eucrium] Spinosum, *Thorny Germander.
1833. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), VII. 502/1. The Palinurus vulgaris, or *thorny lobster, sometimes also termed cray-fish.
1666. J. Davies, Hist. Caribby Isles, 35. The Prickly or *Thorny-Palm, having that name from the prickliness of it.
1822. Hortus Anglicus, II. 233. O[nonis] Spinosa. *Thorny Rest Harrow.
1760. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 353/1. *Thorny Trefoil, of Candia, Fagonia.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 55/1. Murex Tribulus (Common *Thorny Woodcock).
b. In other collocations, as † thorny marrow, the spinal marrow.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 195. It is made motive in the thorny marrow or Spina Medullæ.
5. Comb. as thorny-edged, -pointed, -pricking, -thin, -twining adjs.
1594. Kyd, Cornelia, II. 269. Whose loftie Towers (like thorny-pointed speares).
1596. Edw. III., I. i. Feruent desire,… Is farre more thornie pricking than this blade.
1705 Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXV. 1952. The Thorny-edged Carolina Crab.
1735. Somerville, Chace, II. 166. The thorny-twining Hedge.
1885. Hel. G. Cone, in Atlantic Monthly, April, 451. What lifeless laughter, crackling thorny-thin?
b. Special Combs.: thorny-back, (a) the thomback; (b) the stickleback; (c) the river perch; thorny-ribs (see quot.); thorny-shell, a univalve mollusk, Voluta spinosa.
1810. P. Neill, List Fishes, 28 (Jam.). *Thorny-back (Raia clavata).
1869. Chater’s Tyneside Alm., 13 (E.D.D.). Here may be fund the thorney-back, the Poheed an’ Tommy Lodjor.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., VIII. lxxviii. Limington *Thorney-ribs…. A sort of Fossil Murex.
1713. Petiver, Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ, Tab. iii. Voluta spinosa … River *Thorney-shell.
