A crown or fillet of thorns: chiefly in reference to that placed in mockery on the head of Christ (Matt. xxvii. 29, etc.).
c. 1400[?]. Warres of Jewes (Laud MS. 22), in Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry (1840), II. 106. A strange thorn crown was thraste on his hed.
1859. Ld. Lytton, Wanderer (ed. 2), 420. The thorn-crown hath blossom’d on my brow.
1902. Lindsey Star, 12 July, 2/2. He wore the thorn-crown on His brow.
So Thorn-crowned a., crowned with thorns, wearing a crown of thorns.
1609. J. Davies, Holy Roode, G j. We learne … by his Thorne-crowned head, How to adorne vs.
1792. R. Cumberland, Calvary (1803), II. 101. His thorn-crown’d head upon his breast reclin’d.
1903. Month, Aug., 127. The thorn-crowned figure of the Redeemer.
