1. (

• gorse ,
• furze ,
• whin ,
• Irish_gorse ,
• Ulex_europaeus

) very spiny and dense evergreen shrub with fragrant golden-yellow flowers; common throughout western Europe ;

2. (

• woodwaxen ,
• dyer's_greenweed ,
• dyer's-broom ,
• dyeweed ,
• greenweed ,
• whin ,
• woadwaxen ,
• Genista_tinctoria

) small Eurasian shrub having clusters of yellow flowers that yield a dye; common as a weed in Britain and the United States; sometimes grown as an ornamental ;

3. (

• whinstone ,
• whin

) any of various hard colored rocks (especially rocks consisting of chert or basalt) ;