Etymology 1
From Middle English burre, perhaps related to Old English byrst (“bristle”). Cognate with Danish burre, borre (“burdock, burr”), Swedish borre (“sea-urchin”).
Noun
burr (plural burrs)
- A sharp, pointy object, such as a sliver or splinter.
- Hyponyms: sliver, splinter; chip, swarf
- Coordinate term: sharp
- Alternative form of bur (“rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants”).
- Synonym: sticker
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:[…] nay Friar, I am a kind of Burre, I ſhal ſticke.
- A small piece of material left on an edge after a cutting operation.
You left a bunch of burrs on those parts yesterday. You've already been told not to miss the deburring operation.
- 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.
- A broad iron ring on a tilting lance just below the grip, to prevent the hand from slipping.
- The ear lobe.
- A burr knot or burl.
2022, Carol Maxwell, Northern Territory Literary Awards, page 58:We notice wild bees gathering sap in a burr of the third mango tree[.]
- The knot at the bottom of an antler.
- (engineering) A revolving disk or cone with abrasive surfaces used to grind hard products in a grinder or mill.
- Coordinate terms: millstone, grindstone
Translations
seed pod with sharp features
- Albanian: please add this translation if you can
- Arabic: please add this translation if you can
- Belarusian: калю́чка f (kaljúčka), дзед m (dzjed)
- Bulgarian: ле́пка (bg) f (lépka)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
- Czech: kulička z lopuchu
- Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
- Estonian: takjas (et)
- Finnish: takiaispallo, takiainen (fi)
- French: bardane (fr) f
- Galician: ourizo (gl) m
- Georgian: ეკალი (eḳali)
- German: Klette (de) f
- Greek: please add this translation if you can
- Hungarian: bogáncs (hu)
- Italian: riccio (it) m
- Japanese: please add this translation if you can
- Komi-Zyrian: репей (repej)
- Maori: hutiwai, pirikahu, piripiri, kaiārurerure, kaikaiārure, kaiā, piriwhetau
- Mari:
- Eastern Mari: коршаҥге (koršaŋge)
- Western Mari: каржангы (karžangy)
- Portuguese: ouriço (pt) m, carrapicho (pt) m
- Russian: репе́й (ru) m (repéj), колю́чка (ru) f (koljúčka)
- Spanish: cadillo m
- Swedish: kardborre (sv) c
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: please add this translation if you can
- Udmurt: люгы (ľugy)
- Ukrainian: реп'я́х m (repʺjáx), колю́чка f (koljúčka)
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material left on an edge after cutting
revolving disk or cone with abrasive surfaces
Translations to be checked
Verb
burr (third-person singular simple present burrs, present participle burring, simple past and past participle burred)
- (transitive, engineering) To grind using a burr (revolving disk or cone with abrasive surfaces).
Etymology 2
Onomatopoeic, influenced by bur. Compare to French bruire.
Noun
burr (plural burrs)
- A rough humming sound.
- A uvular "r" sound, or (by extension) an accent characterized by this sound.
1843 January, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Madame D'Arblay”, in Critical and Historical Essays, volume 2:Foote’s mimicry was exquisitely ludicrous, but it was all caricature. He could take off only some strange peculiarity, a stammer or a lisp, a Northumbrian burr or an Irish brogue, a stoop or a shuffle.
1914, G. K. Chesterton, “The Absence of Mr Glass”, in The Wisdom of Father Brown:“That man Glass has been with him again; I heard them talking through the door quite plain. Two separate voices: for James speaks low, with a burr, and the other voice was high and quavery.”
1920, Melville Davisson Post, “The House by the Loch”, in The Sleuth of St. James's Square:He spoke with the deep rich burr of his race and with a structure of speech that I cannot reproduce here.
2004 January 9, Kirsty Scott, “Why ye cannae learn English in Scotland”, in The Guardian:The Scottish burr may often prove incomprehensible to English ears, but the Foreign Office apparently considers the accent so impenetrable that it has rejected a Russian student's application to study in Scotland on the grounds that she might not understand the language.
2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 65:Judging by the new voice over the PA, we've had a crew change in Plymouth - the warning about masks and the apology for lack of catering is made in a chirpy Cockney twang rather than a West Country burr.
Verb
burr (third-person singular simple present burrs, present participle burring, simple past and past participle burred)
- (transitive) To pronounce with a uvular "r".
- (intransitive) To make a rough humming sound.
1950, C. S. Lewis, chapter 7, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Collins, published 1998:The first thing Lucy noticed as she went in was a burring sound, and the first thing she saw was a kind-looking old she-beaver sitting in the corner with a thread in her mouth working busily at her sewing machine, and it was from it that the sound came.
Etymology 3
Uncertain.
Noun
burr (plural burrs)
- (historical) A metal ring at the top of the hand-rest on a spear.
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter IV, in Le Morte Darthur, book XXI: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- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry:burr or ring of iron behind the hand
1819, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia: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.
2003, Thomas Howard Crofts, Fifteenth-century Malory, page 290: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.
2012, Howard Pyle, The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur: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.
2015, James B. Tschen-Emmons, Artifacts from Medieval Europe, page 280: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.
Further reading
- “burr”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- “burr”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “burr”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “burr”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
Noun
burr m
- son
- (when preceded by genitive of jǫrð) kenning for Thor.
- verse 1 of the Þrýmskviða, (1936 translation by Henry Adams Bellows)
Skegg nam at hrista / skǫr nam at dýja, / réð Jarðar burr / um at þreifask.- He [Thor] shook his beard / his hair was bristling / as the son of Jorth / about him sought.
- Synonym: sonr
- poet
Declension
More information masculine, singular ...
masculine |
singular |
plural |
indefinite |
definite |
indefinite |
definite |
nominative |
burr |
burrinn |
burir |
burirnir |
accusative |
bur |
burinn |
buri |
burina |
dative |
bur |
burinum |
burum |
burunum |
genitive |
burar |
burarins |
bura |
buranna |
Close
Declension of burr (strong i-stem, ar-genitive)
References
- “burr”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Noun
burr (possessed xpurr)
- donkey
- donkey-load
Derived terms
- burr bžinꞌ
- burr daoꞌ
- yag burr
- yeḻəꞌ burr
References
- Butler H., Inez M. (2000) Diccionario zapoteco de Yatzachi: Yatzachi el Bajo, Yatzachi el Alto, Oaxaca (Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves”; 37), second electronic edition, Coyoacán, D.F.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C., page 31