thorn tree

English

Alternative forms

• thorn-tree

Etymology

From Middle English thornetre; equivalent to thorn +‎ tree.

Noun

thorn tree

1. A common name for any tree which has leaves like thorns, especially the acacia.
   • 1811, “Visit to the Great Namaquas”, in The Missionary Herald at Home and Abroad‎^[1], volume 6, page 466:

     They then came together to hear the preaching of the Gospel; but I postponed it till the evening, because I was then exceedingly wearied. The captain shewed me a large old thorn tree for a lodging.

   • 2007 April 1, Thomas Harlan, The Shadow of Ararat: Book One of 'The Oath of Empire'‎^[2], page 294:

     Thirty feet below her, where the Persians were crashing through the brush, the streambed kinked to the left side of the ravine and ran under an enormous thorn tree with a thick base.

   • 2010 August 3, David Bennun, Tick Bite Fever‎^[3], Random House, page 109:

     I WOULD HAVE been nine or ten when my mother chased me up a thorn tree with a ceremonial hippo-hide whip. What my crime was, I forget. My mother was, and remains, a woman of exceptional forbearance. I must have done something so obnoxious as to beggar belief.