bryony

American  

[brahy-uh-nee] / ˈbraɪ ə ni /

Or briony

noun

• bryonies
  plural

1. any Old World vine or climbing plant belonging to the genus Bryonia, of the gourd family, yielding acrid juice having emetic and purgative properties.

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bryony British  

/ ˈbraɪənɪ /

noun

1. any of several herbaceous climbing plants of the cucurbitaceous genus Bryonia , of Europe and N Africa See also black bryony white bryony

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bryonies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of bryony

before 1000; Middle English brionie, Old English bryōnia < Latin < Greek: a wild vine

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bryony bryonies

They were coming to a thicket of juniper and dog roses, tangled at ground level with nettles and trails of bryony on which the berries were now beginning to ripen and turn red.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

The ditch was thick with cow parsley, hemlock and long trails of green-flowering bryony.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

By the bushes there is a double row of pale buff bryony leaves; these, too, help to increase the sense of a secondary colour.

From Nature Near London by Richard Jefferies

Black bryony is a twining plant, and can travel spirally up the hazel stems, just as a hop ascends its pole. 

From Rustic Sounds and Other Studies in Literature and Natural History by Sir Francis Darwin

The black bryony, or Tamus, is called black bindweed, and the Smilax aspera, rough bindweed.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Noah Webster

The number of different kinds of bushes in the hedgerows, entwined by traveller's joy and the bryonies, is conspicuous compared with the hedges of the northern counties.

From More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 by Sir Francis Darwin

The stem of one of the bryonies withers up so completely that the shrinkage, aided by a little wind, snaps it.

From Wild Life in a Southern County by Richard Jefferies

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