eglantine Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun Eurasian rose with prickly stems and fragrant leaves and bright pink flowers followed by scarlet hips
    sweetbrier; briar; sweetbriar; Rosa eglanteria; brier.

WordNet

Eg"lan*tine noun
Etymology
F. églantine, fr. OF. aiglent brier, hip tree, fr. (assumed) LL. acuculentus, fr. a dim. of L. acus needle; cf. F. aiguille needle. Cf. Aglet.
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) (a) A species of rose (Rosa Eglanteria), with fragrant foliage and flowers of various colors. (b) The sweetbrier (R. rubiginosa). ✍ Milton, in the following lines, has applied the name to some twinning plant, perhaps the honeysuckle.
    Through the sweetbrier, or the vine, Or the twisted eglantine. L'Allegro, 47.
    "In our early writers and in Gerarde and the herbalists, it was a shrub with white flowers." Dr. Prior.

Webster 1913