Definition of "thorny" []

• Full of or covered with thorns. (adjective)
• Spiny. (adjective)
• Painfully controversial; vexatious: a thorny situation; thorny issues. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Far more thorny is the question of whether casual sex, or any sex outside marriage, is emotionally harmful."
• ""Far more thorny is the question of whether casual sex, or any sex outside marriage, is emotionally harmful.""
• "Especially interesting will be how Biden may be willing to take on a certain thorny issue, spoken in low whispers now."