Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.

与刺不同，皮刺能够被轻易地从植物茎上剥落，因为它仅仅是植物外层的一种特征，而不像刺那样是树木的一部分。

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"Private Devotion and Power" includes one of the show's most impressive jewel-like objects, "the Holy Thorn Reliquary".

“个人奉献和权力”部分包括一件宝石一样的东西，叫“圣荆棘圣髑盒”，是最为令人赞叹的展品之一。

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And if any man should do wrong, merely out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or briar, which prick and scratch, because they can do no other.

而且即便有人纯然是出于恶性而作恶，那也不过像荆棘藜枯一般，刺扎戳钩皆因其没别的本事。

youdao

At that moment, the two older girls seemed suddenly to take notice anew of the youngest, Yar, and they looked upon her like a thorn stuck to their collective heel.

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At what point does an entrepreneurial thorn in the side of a corporate giant become more like a knife?

FORBES: Magazine Article

That commitment to secrecy has been a thorn in the side of many countries, including fellow Europeans like Germany and the UK, who have been constantly thwarted in their attempts to identify those who were evading tax by opening accounts in Swiss banks.

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