▪ I. brier, briar, brere, n.1
(braɪə(r), ˈbraɪə(r), brɪə(r))
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 rimed 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, bræmbel⁓brær. c 1000 Saxon Leechd. 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. 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 Over⁓grown with briers and brambles. 1822 Byron Werner iii. i. 159 The doubts that rise like briers in our path. 1847 Tennyson Princ. v. 27, I was..torn with briers. |
(
γ) Form
briar (
bryar).
| 1552 Huloet, Bryar..a lytle or yonge bryer. 1601 Shakes. 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 y⊇ bryer is to the rose. 1858 Glenny Gard. Everyday 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 Shakes. 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,
brier-berry,
brier-bush,
brier-flower,
brier-leaf,
brier-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., Car{cced}al, 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 Of 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. |
▪ II. brier, briar, n.2 (
ˈbraɪə(r))
[Formerly bruyer, a. F. bruyère heath, erroneously identified with the prec. word.] The White Heath (
Erica arborea), a native of the south of France, Corsica, etc., the root of which is extensively used for making tobacco-pipes (introduced into England about 1859); also a pipe of this wood. So
brier-root,
brier-wood;
brier-wooder (
nonce-wd.), a smoker of a brier pipe.
| 1868 Tobacco Trade Rev. Feb. 8 (Advt.) Health pipe: in Bruyer Wood. Ibid. Ap. 11 Joseph Izod, Importer of Meerschaum and Bruyer Pipes. Ibid. Brier Wood, Lava, Clay, and China Pipes. 1869 Ibid. Jan. 9 Briar Pipes. Ibid. Mch. 13 The substances used are meerschaum..briar-root. 1882 Graphic 16 Dec. 683/2 Nowadays, every third man you meet has a cigarette or a ‘briar’ in his mouth. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Briar Root of which Pipes are made. Erica arborea. 1885 M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird i, He sat..lazily puffing at his black briarwood. 1886 Harper's Mag. Dec. 27 There is the ever-ready brier-root pipe loaded with Caporal. 1886 Tinsley's Mag. July 53 Yet I hope he is not vulgarer than the briar-wooders. a 1888 Mod. Do you really prefer a brier to a meerschaum? 1891 ‘L. Keith’ The Halletts xxviii, Pass me the brier-root. 1909 Daily Chron. 23 July 3/3 A briar being his constant companion while writing. |
▪ III. † brier, v. Obs. rare—1.
In 7
bryre.
[f. brier n.1] trans. To catch or annoy like briers.
| 1601 Weever Mirr. Mart. A v b, Some way..was knottie, othersome would bryre me. |