English

Rosa eglanteria FlowerCloseup2 10May2009 SierraMadrona

Alternative forms

• sweetbriar, sweet-breare (obsolete)

Noun

sweetbrier ‎(plural sweetbriers)

1. A Eurasian rose, Rosa eglanteria, having prickly stems, fragrant leaves, pink flowers and red hips
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.11:

     Yet both in flowres doe live, and love thee beare, / The one a Paunce, the other a sweet-breare […].

   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, "The Blessing,"

     The mud-flats did not always smell nice although the bushes of sweet-briar on the edge of the high-water rim did their best […]

Synonyms

• eglantine