Any bush that bears thorns; e.g., a hawthorn, a bramble. Also attrib.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 9. A suynhird smote he to dede vnder a thorn busk.
1483. Cath. Angl., 384/1. A Thorne buske, spinetum.
1535. Coverdale, Judg. ix. 15. Then sayde all the trees vnto the thorne buszshe: Come thou, and be kynge ouer vs.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 263. I, the man in the Moone; this thorne bush, my thorne bush; and this dog, my dog.
1896. Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, xi. I lay up during the heat of the day with a waterproof sheet spread over a thorn-bush as a shelter from the sun.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 3 Nov., 3/1. Crossing this thick thorn-bush country in the face of the opposition of a numerous army elated by recent success.
