1. [n]  a mock crown made of thorn branches that Roman soldiers placed on Jesus before the Crucifixion
2. [n]  somewhat climbing bushy spurge of Madagascar having long woody spiny stems with few leaves and flowers with scarlet bracts
3. [n]  any affliction that causes great suffering; "that is his cross to bear"; "he bears his afflictions like a crown of thorns"

Crown of Thorns
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our Lord was crowned with a, in mockery by the Romans (Matt. 27:29). The object of Pilate's guard in doing this was probably to insult, and not specially to inflict pain. There is nothing to show that the shrub thus used was, as has been supposed, the spina Christi, which could have been easily woven into a wreath. It was probably the thorny nabk, which grew abundantly round about Jerusalem, and whose flexible, pliant, and round branches could easily be platted into the form of a crown. (See THORN ¯T0003642, 3.)