▪ I. ˈburling, n. Obs. exc. dial.
A yearling heifer.
| 1503 Will of Etton, Lincoln (Somerset Ho.) A kowe & a burlyng. 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. (E.D.S.) Burling (Linc.), a yearling heifer. |
▪ II. burling, vbl. n.1
(ˈbɜːlɪŋ)
Also 6 byrling.
[f. burl v.1 + -ing1.]
1. The dressing of cloth, esp. by removing knots.
| 1530 Palsgr. 198/2 Byrling of clothe, pinsure. 1552 Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI, xxii, Mills called Gig-Mills, for the perching and burling of Cloth. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 560 They fall anone to burling of it with Cimolia. 1836 Ure Philos. Manuf. 187 Burling is..a process, in which the dried cloth is examined minutely in every part, freed from knots or uneven threads, and repaired by sewing any little rents. |
† b. (contemptuously.)
| 1548 Hooper Commandm. x. Wks. (1843–52) 377 Other sort..are a-dilling and burling of their hair. |
2. attrib., as in burling-comb, burling-machine; also burling-iron, a pair of tweezers or small pincers for extracting the knots from wool.
| 1530 Palsgr. 198/2 Byrlyng yron, unes espinces. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1231 He..all to beclawed and mangled him with tuckers cards, and burling combs. 1648 Herrick Hesp., To Painter, Then for an easie fansie, place A burling iron for his face. 1730–6 Bailey, Burling-iron, a Sort of Pinchers or Nippers for that Use. |
3. concr. See quot., and cf. burl v.1 2.
| 1847–78 Halliwell, Burlings, pieces of dirty wool. |
▪ III. † burling, vbl. n.2 Obs.
Cf. burly n., burle.
| c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 240 There began muche hurlynge and burlynge in the courte. |
▪ IV. burling, vbl. n.3 and ppl. a. poet.
(ˈbɜːlɪŋ)
[f. burl vb., var. birl v. to revolve, rotate.]
Whirling, rotating.
| 1874 G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers 11 Aug. (1959) 251, I marked the bole, the burling and roundness of the world. 1886 ― Poems (1918) 72 Ringlet-race on burling Barrow brown. |