[ noun ] Eurasian rose with prickly stems and fragrant leaves and bright pink flowers followed by scarlet hips <noun.plant>
Eglantine \Eg"lan*tine\, n. [F. ['e]glantine, fr. OF. aiglent brier, hip tree, fr. (assumed) LL. acuculentus, fr. a dim. of L. acus needle; cf. F. aiguille needle. Cf. {Aglet}.] (Bot.) (a) A species of rose ({Rosa Eglanteria}), with fragrant foliage and flowers of various colors. (b) The sweetbrier ({R. rubiginosa}).
Note: Milton, in the following lines, has applied the name to some twining 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.