burr
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɝ/
ipa: /bɜː/
ipa: /bʌr/
ipa: /bøː/
note: Liverpool, fair–fur merger
ipa: /beː/
note: Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger
ipa: /bɛː/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
homophone: bur
homophone: Burr
homophone: brr
homophone: birr (fern–fir–fur merger)
homophone: bare
homophone: bear (both fair–fur merger)
Forms: form: burrs
Etymology: From Middle English burre, perhaps related to Old English byrst (“bristle”). Cognate with Danish burre, borre (“burdock, burr”), Swedish borre (“sea-urchin”).
Senses: coordinate_terms: sharp
glosses: A sharp, pointy object, such as a sliver or splinter.
examples: text: […] nay Friar, I am a kind of Burre, I ſhal ſticke.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 78:
text: But cockle, spurge, according to their law / Might propagate their kind, with none to awe, / You'd think; a burr had been a treasure trove.
ref: 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section X:
synonyms: sticker
glosses: Alternative form of bur (“rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants”).
examples: text: You left a bunch of burrs on those parts yesterday. You've already been told not to miss the deburring operation.
text: But the graver, in ploughing furrows in the surface of the copper, raises corresponding ridges or burrs
ref: 1852, Charles Tomlinson, “Engraving”, in Cyclopædia of Useful Arts & Manufactures, page 607:
glosses: A small piece of material left on an edge after a cutting operation.
glosses: A thin flat piece of metal, formed from a sheet by punching; a small washer put on the end of a rivet before it is swaged down.
glosses: A broad iron ring on a tilting lance just below the grip, to prevent the hand from slipping.
examples: text: And there kyng Arthur smote syr mordred vnder the shelde wyth a foyne of his spere thorughoute the body more than a fadom / And whan syr Mordred felte that he had hys dethes wounde / He thryst hym self wyth the myght that he had vp to the bur of kynge Arthurs spere / And right so he smote his fader Arthur wyth his swerde holden in bothe his handes
ref: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter IV, in Le Morte Darthur, book XXI:
text: burr or ring of iron behind the hand
ref: 1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry:
text: The front of it was defended by an iron-plate, called a vam-plat, that is, an avant-plate, and behind it was a broad iron ring, called a burr.
ref: 1819, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia:
text: We are made to witness a cathartic shuffling-off of mortalities and of hatreds: Mordred's pulling himself up to the 'burr' of Arthur's spear is Malory's own detail and one of the most memorable in the book.
ref: 2003, Thomas Howard Crofts, Fifteenth-century Malory, page 290:
text: And when his body was against the burr of the spear, he took his sword in both his hands and he swung the sword above his head, and he smote King Arthur with the edge of the sword upon the helmet.
ref: 2012, Howard Pyle, The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur:
text: Many saddles, especially those for use on warhorses, had high burr plates and cantles. this was especially important when knights began using stirrups and the couched lance.
ref: 2015, James B. Tschen-Emmons, Artifacts from Medieval Europe, page 280:
glosses: A metal ring at the top of the hand-rest on a spear.
glosses: The ear lobe.
examples: text: We notice wild bees gathering sap in a burr of the third mango tree[.]
ref: 2022, Carol Maxwell, Northern Territory Literary Awards, page 58:
glosses: A burr knot or burl.
glosses: The knot at the bottom of an antler.
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
coordinate_terms: millstone
grindstone
glosses: A revolving disk or cone with abrasive surfaces used to grind hard products in a grinder or mill.
Derived terms: buffalo burr
buffalo-burr
burr cell
burr cucumber
burrfish
burr gherkin
burr grinder
burrhead
burr hole
burr in one's saddle
burrish
burrless
burrlike
burr mill
burr millstone
burr oak
Burr Oak
burr puzzle
burr thistle
burr under one's saddle
burrweed
clotbur
deburr