Word.ws English Dictionary

thorns in the flesh

thorns in the flesh is the plural of thorn in the flesh.

Meaning of thorn in the flesh

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
    Synonyms:
    thorn in one's side

Questions about thorns in the flesh

What is thorns in the flesh the plural of?
Thorns in the flesh is the plural of thorn in the flesh.

Words near thorns in the flesh in the dictionary

  1. thornproofs
  2. Thornquist
  3. Thornquists
  4. thorns
  5. thorns in someone's side
  6. thorns in the flesh
  7. Thornsberry
  8. Thornsberrys
  9. Thornsbury
  10. Thornsburys
  11. thornscrub

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thorns in the flesh (page history and authors); 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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