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Glite Dictionary
dog rose

dog rose

1 6.7
A wild rose bush that has prickly stems and pink or white flowers
  • noun
  • UK
translation icon : rosa canina
  • Look at that beautiful dog rose over there!

Examples

  • She picked a single dog rose to press in her notebook.

  • The hedgerow was full of wild dog roses in summer.

  • We saw a beautiful dog rose blooming along the country lane.

  • The dog rose blooms beautifully in the spring.

  • In the countryside, I saw a beautiful dog rose blooming along the path.

  • The gardener planted a dog rose to fill the area with its lovely pink flowers.

  • During our walk, we noticed a cluster of dog roses growing near the old stone wall.

Synonyms

Rosa canina
vsdog rose
  • Specialized
7.5

A wild rose with pink or white flowers, red fruit, and prickly stems

is the common everyday name rather than the botanical Latin name

Surface Forms

dog rose singular
dog roses plural

Morphology

dog + rose

A B1 learner who knows 'dog' and 'rose' will readily see that this is a kind of rose (so the basic subtype relation is compositional). However, the specific sense — a wild, prickly, scentless species — and the role of 'dog' as an arbitrary or lexicalized modifier are not predictable from the constituents, making the full meaning only partially transparent.

Etymology

Dog rose may come from an old belief that the plant's fruit called rose hips could help with 'dog bites', so people linked dog to the wild rose. That's why today dog rose means the 'wild' rose you find in hedges and fields.