sweetbriar

9.8

A wild rose with prickly stems, sweet-smelling leaves, pink flowers, and red fruit

noun
/ˈswitˌbraɪər/

: rosa silvestre

I planted several sweetbriars in my garden.

Examples

The garden was filled with sweetbriar, its fragrant leaves attracting butterflies and bees.
The garden was famous for its ancient sweetbriars that bloomed each spring.
A sweetbriar bush grew along the old stone wall, filling the air with a delicate scent.
She picked a few sweetbriar hips to make a fragrant herbal tea.
The sweetbriar blooms beautifully in the spring.
In early summer, the sweetbriar blooms with bright pink flowers, adding beauty to the landscape.
She planted sweetbriar bushes around her home for their lovely scent and vibrant scarlet hips.

Synonyms

sweetbrier

vssweetbriar

1 9.5

A wild rose with prickly stems, sweet-smelling leaves, pink flowers, and red hips

is often grown as an ornamental shrub rather than only a wild plant

eglantine

vssweetbriar

Archaic

1 9.9

A wild rose with prickly stems, sweet-smelling leaves, pink flowers, and small red fruit

is the general common name used for similar wild roses rather than one species

Rosa eglanteria

vssweetbriar

Specialized

9.9

A wild rose with prickly stems, sweet-smelling leaves, bright pink flowers, and red fruit

is the common ornamental name used in gardens rather than a scientific label

Surface Forms

sweetbriar singular

sweetbriars plural

Morphology

sweetbriar = sweet + briar (transparent) = sweet + briar

A straightforward compound: a briar characterized as 'sweet' (fragrant/tasty), so meaning is directly derivable from its parts.

Etymology

Sweetbriar is made from the simple words sweet and briar, where briar means 'prickly bush'. It was named because this wild rose smells 'sweet' and grows on thorny stems, so the name neatly describes the plant's scent and form.