Word.ws English Dictionary

thorn in the flesh

thorn in the flesh noun: a persistent difficulty or something very annoying that will not go away.

Noun

thorn in the flesh (plural thorns in the flesh)

  1. (idiomatic) A persistent difficulty or something very annoying that will not go away.
    • Whereas the growth of new middle and upper classes remains a thorn in the flesh to the Communist Party, the military element is inclined to favor this development, in the belief that those who have something at stake are more likely to fight to defend the system in the event of another conflict.1959, Ivar Spector, The Soviet Union and the Muslim World, 1917-1958
    • Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the post of the Executive Director of the Kenya Roads Board has been a thorn in the flesh of the Minister.2001 June 13, Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard), page 1106
    Synonyms:
    thorn in one's side

thorn in the flesh meaning in Malay and Indonesian

thorn in the flesh in Malay

persistent difficulty
duri dalam daging

thorn in the flesh in Indonesian

persistent difficulty
duri dalam daging

Synonyms of thorn in the flesh

  • thorn in one's side

Forms of thorn in the flesh

pluralthorns in the flesh

Origin of thorn in the flesh

With reference to the Bible 2nd Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 7. 2 Corinthians 12.7

Questions about thorn in the flesh

What does thorn in the flesh mean?
Thorn in the flesh means a persistent difficulty or something very annoying that will not go away.
What is thorn in the flesh in Malay?
Thorn in the flesh in Malay is duri dalam daging. See Thorn in the flesh meaning in Malay.
What part of speech is thorn in the flesh?
Thorn in the flesh is a noun.
What is the plural of thorn in the flesh?
The plural of thorn in the flesh is thorns in the flesh.

Words near thorn in the flesh in the dictionary

  1. thorn cluster
  2. thorn clusters
  3. thorn forest
  4. thorn forests
  5. thorn in someone's side
  6. thorn in the flesh
  7. thorn plum
  8. thorn plums
  9. thorn tree
  10. thorn trees
  11. thorn veld

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thorn in the flesh (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-thorn in the flesh.ogg.

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