thorn·y

(thôr′nē)

adj. thorn·i·er, thorn·i·est

1. Having many thorns or abounding in thorn-covered vegetation: thorny shrubs; a thorny landscape.

2. Spiny or prickly.

3. Controversial, problematic, or vexatious: avoided discussing thorny issues during the meeting.

thorn′i·ly adv.

thorn′i·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	thorniness - the quality of being covered with prickly thorns or spines bristliness, prickliness, spininess raggedness, roughness - a texture of a surface or edge that is not smooth but is irregular and uneven
	2.	thorniness - a rough and bitter manner acrimony, bitterness, jaundice, tartness, acerbity disagreeableness - an ill-tempered and offensive disposition

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References in periodicals archive

(288) Even setting aside the thorniness of the precedential value of a plurality opinion, (289) questions remain as to whether and to what extent Tills formula approach to determining cramdown rates in chapter 13 cases should also be used in chapter 11 cases.

Reevaluating Risk and Return in Chapter 11 Secured Creditor Cramdowns: Interest Rates and Beyond

The shrubs also exhibit variations in vigor, disease resistance, thorniness, and growth pattern.

Gooseberries in the Market Garden: Start your own small-scale berry market with the flavorful and sought-after gooseberry

Part of the thorniness around multilateralism lies in the misplaced notion that it and pure unilateralism are the only choices.

'United' or 'Nations'? Balance is UN's existential question

Schulze reads this evolutionary idea as the basis of Moore's championing art, including her own, that preserves its "pride in unserviceableness" (CPr 93), its "complicated starkness" (A-Q 43), its thorniness, in the face of readers who prefer "smoothness" and conventionality.

"Pigeons" and the Future of Moore Criticism

Rossetti's "rose with scarce a thorn" that "drooped, and all its gay increase / Was but one thorn that wounded me" (Christina Rossetti 214, lines 3, 6-7) could be a subtle reference to the rose of Jericho as, indeed, a far more effective metaphor for mortality and potentiality than the common rose and its unambiguous and hackneyed thorniness. Like the rose of Jericho awaiting in a state of metabolic arrest for its resurrection as the first rains come, Rossetti's forbearance involves an anticipation of increase: "For verily I think to-morrow morn / Shall bring me Paradise, my gift's increase, / Yea, give Thy very Self to me" (Christina Rossetti 214, lines 16-18).

A comparative history of resurrection plants

If you think about it, it spotlights the messy human goo, the thorniness of human experience in a way.

An interview with Paula McLain, author of the Paris Wife

In my own view, even when one selects an interpretive stance at that level, problems remain for defenders of the legal force of any putative "best view." It is not as if predicting what courts will decide, or choosing to hew to an executive branch centered jurisprudence will eliminate the uncertainty, ambiguity, and thorniness of legal questions.

Who is the attorney general's client?