thorny as an adjective: - 1
- 2
thorny
adjective
1 thorny
Bristling with perplexities.
Roget 704:
difficult,
not easy,
hard,
tough;
troublesome,
toilsome,
irksome;
operose†,
laborious,
onerous,
arduous,
Herculean,
formidable;
sooner said than done;
more easily said than done,
easier said than done.
difficult to deal with,
hard to deal with;
ill-conditioned,
crabbed,
crabby;
not to be handled with kid gloves,
not made with rose water.
awkward,
unwieldy,
unmanageable;
intractable,
stubborn
etc.
(obstinate)
606;
perverse,
refractory,
plaguy†,
trying,
thorny,
rugged;
knotted,
knotty;
invious†;
pathless,
trackless;
labyrinthine
etc.
(convoluted)
248;
intricate,
complicated
etc.
(tangled)
59;
impracticable
etc.
(impossible)
471;
not feasible
etc.
470;
desperate
etc.
(hopeless)
859.
embarrassing,
perplexing
etc.
(uncertain)
475;
delicate,
ticklish,
critical;
beset with difficulties,
full of difficulties,
surrounded by difficulties,
entangled by difficulties,
encompassed with difficulties.
under a difficulty;
in a box;
in difficulty,
in hot water,
in the suds,
in a cleft stick,
in a fix,
in the wrong box,
in a scrape
etc.
n.,
in deep water,
in a fine pickle;
in extremis;
between two stools,
between Scylla and Charybdis;
surrounded by shoals,
surrounded by breakers,
surrounded by quicksands;
at cross purposes;
not out of the wood.
reduced to straits;
hard pressed,
sorely pressed;
run hard;
pinched,
put to it,
straitened;
hard up,
hard put to it,
hard set;
put to one's shifts;
puzzled,
at a loss,
etc.
(uncertain)
475;
at the end of one's tether,
at the end of one's rope,
at one's wit's end,
at a nonplus,
at a standstill;
graveled,
nonplused,
nonplussed,
stranded,
aground;
stuck fast,
set fast;
up a tree,
at bay,
aux abois [Fr.],
driven into a corner,
driven from pillar to post,
driven to extremity,
driven to one's wit's end,
driven to the wall;
au bout de son Latin;
out of one's depth;
thrown out.
accomplished with difficulty;
hard-fought,
hard-earned.
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Polish: cierniowy, ciernisty
2 thorny
Having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc..
synonyms: barbed, barbellate, briary, briery, bristled, bristly, burred, burry, prickly, setaceous, setose, spiny ... show more.
Roget 253:
sharp,
keen;
acute;
acicular,
aciform†;
aculeated†,
acuminated†;
pointed;
tapering;
conical,
pyramidal;
mucronate†,
mucronated†;
spindle shaped,
needle shaped;
spiked,
spiky,
ensiform†,
peaked,
salient;
cusped,
cuspidate,
cuspidated†;
cornute†,
cornuted†,
cornicultate†;
prickly;
spiny,
spinous†,
spicular;
thorny,
bristling,
muricated†,
pectinated†,
studded,
thistly,
briary†;
craggy
etc.
(rough)
256;
snaggy,
digitated†,
two-edged,
fusiform [Micro.];
dentiform†,
denticulated;
toothed;
odontoid†;
starlike;
stellated†,
stelliform†;
sagittate†,
sagittiform†;
arrowheaded†;
arrowy†,
barbed,
spurred.
acinaciform;
apiculate†,
apiculated†;
aristate†,
awned,
awny†,
bearded,
calamiform†,
cone-shaped,
coniform†,
crestate†,
echinate†,
gladiate†;
lanceolate†,
lanciform;
awl,
awl-shaped,
lance-shaped,
awl-shaped,
scimitar-shaped,
sword-shaped;
setarious†,
spinuliferous†,
subulate†,
tetrahedral,
xiphoid†.
cutting;
sharp edged,
knife edged;
sharp as a razor,
keen as a razor;
sharp as a needle,
sharp as a tack;
sharpened
etc.
v.;
set
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Polish: ciernisty, cierniowy
Moby thesaurus: Herculean, abstruse, acanaceous, acanthoid, aciculate, aculeolate, arduous, barbed, barbellate, brambly, briery, bristly, brutal, complex, complicated, controversial, critical, delicate, demanding, difficile, difficult, exacting, formidable, hairy, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, intricate, involved, jawbreaking, knotted, knotty, laborious, mean, muricate, nasty, nettlesome, no picnic, not easy, operose, painful, pricking, prickly, pricky, problematic, rigorous, rough, rugged, set with thorns, setaceous, setose, severe, spiculate, spiculose, spiked, spinous, spiny, steep, sticky, stinging, strenuous, tangled, thistly, ticklish, toilsome, tough, tricky, troublesome, uphill, vexatious, wicked, worrying ... show more.
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