Prickly ash Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any of a number of trees or shrubs of the genus Zanthoxylum having spiny branches
  2. noun Australian tree having alternate simple leaves (when young they are pinnate with prickly toothed margins) and slender axillary spikes of white flowers
    Orites excelsa.

WordNet

Definitions
  1. (Bot.), a prickly shrub (Xanthoxylum Americanum) with yellowish flowers appearing with the leaves. All parts of the plant are pungent and aromatic. The southern species is X. Carolinianum. Gray.

Webster 1913