briary s having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc. Usage(s) Among the worst were railroad yards briary enough to be mistaken for bad etchings of French cathedrals. Here and there, however, the picture has a patch of beauty briary enough (as the nursery rhyme puts it) to scratch a man's eyes in. Synonym(s) barbed barbellate briery bristled bristly burred burry prickly setose setaceous spiny thorny