From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbriarbri‧ar, brier /ˈbraɪə $ -ər/ noun 1 [countable, uncountable]HBP a wild bush with branches that have small sharp points2 [countable]DFT a tobacco pipe made from briar
Examples from the Corpus
briar• Feel briar and thorn snag heel and heart and soul, but never think that hiding is the end of it.• Hedgerow briars are best left for walking sticks.• The woods are a tangle of briars, fallen trees, and brush.• Copses of beech and alder appeared, straggling along the banks with their roots lost in a tangle of briars and bracken.• He was working in a thicket of briar, elder and dead wood from a fallen tree.• Over the years, a prickly briar hedge grew up along the castle, which no one could penetrate.• When he approached the briar hedge, it melted away and be-came a flowering path.Origin briar 1. Old English brer2. (1800-1900) briar type of heather ((19-20 centuries)), from French bruyère 