greenbrier

American

[green-brahy-er] / ˈgrinˌbraɪ ər /

noun

catbrier.

greenbrier British

/ ˈɡriːnˌbraɪə /

noun

Also called: cat brier. any of several prickly climbing plants of the liliaceous genus Smilax, esp S. rotundifolia of the eastern US, which has small green flowers and blackish berries

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of greenbrier

An Americanism dating back to 1775–85; green + brier ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Consider a historic footnote from World War II. Shortly after Pearl Harbor in 1941, all the Germans and Japanese in their embassies in Washington were sent under guard to the luxurious Greenbrier and Homestead resorts.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026

Koepka won LIV titles in 2022 at Jeddah, 2023 in Orlando and Jeddah and 2024 at Singapore and Greenbrier.

From Barron's • Jan. 9, 2026

"We went to The Greenbrier and they didn't know who we were or what to call it," recalled Faldo.

From BBC • Sep. 23, 2025

In southern West Virginia, there is documentation of trans men living in Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties as early as 1868.

From Salon • May 12, 2024

In fact, the Meadow River Lumber Company operated the world’s largest sawmill not too far away, along the Meadow River between the Sewell and Simms Mountains, at the western edge of Greenbrier County.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023