Thorn

1. v. t. To prick, as with a thorn.
2. n. A hard and sharp-pointed projection from a woody stem; usually, a branch so transformed; a spine.
3. n. Any shrub or small tree which bears thorns; especially, any species of the genus Crataegus, as the hawthorn, whitethorn, cockspur thorn.
4. n. Fig.: That which pricks or annoys as a thorn; anything troublesome; trouble; care.
5. n. The name of the Anglo-Saxon letter /, capital form /. It was used to represent both of the sounds of English th, as in thin, then. So called because it was the initial letter of thorn, a spine.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.