Word.ws English Dictionary

brier patch

brier patch is the alternative form of briar-patch.

Meaning of briar-patch

Noun

briar-patch (plural briar-patches)

  1. (literally) A dense thicket of thorny plants; ground made impassable by the impenetrable overgrowth of prickly vegetation.
    • Hobbes: I'm sick of going over and through every obstacle on the hill.
      Calvin: Every obstacle?!? We missed the briar patch, didn't we?!
      Hobbes: By going down the gully and into the stream, yes.1989 January 3, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic)
  2. (figuratively, singular, usually) An intellectual or philosophical issue abounding with seemingly unresolvable problems; a theoretical quandary or impasse.
    • Our favorite writers can lead us into ideological brier patches and ethical thickets.2016 February 28, A.O. Scott, “In His New Collection, ‘The Rub of Time,’ Martin Amis Takes On Everyone From Travolta to Trump”, in The New York Times

Forms of brier patch

pluralbrier patches

Questions about brier patch

What is brier patch the alternative form of?
Brier patch is the alternative form of briar-patch.

Words near brier patch in the dictionary

  1. Briens
  2. Brienz
  3. Brienza
  4. Brienzas
  5. brier
  6. brier patch
  7. Brier score
  8. brier-patch
  9. brierberries
  10. brierberry
  11. Briere

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brier patch (page history and authors); briar-patch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “brier patch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brier_patch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.