bulrush
(ˈbʊlrʌʃ)
Also 5 bolroysche, 5–6 bul(l)- rysche, -rissh, -rysshe, 6–8 bullrush.
[f. bull of uncertain origin (identified by some with bole1, cf. bulaxe, bole-axe; by others supposed to be an attrib. use of bull n.1) + rush. (The suggestion ‘pool-rush’ is baseless.)]
A name applied in books to Scirpus lacustris, a tall rush growing in or near water; but in modern popular use, more usually, to Typha latifolia, the ‘Cat's Tail’ or ‘Reed-mace’. In the Bible applied to the Papyrus of Egypt.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 244 Holrysche or bulrysche, papirus. c 1475 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 785 Hec papirus, bolroysche. 1483 Act 1 Rich. III, viii. Preamb., Dyers..upon the Lists of the same Clothes festen and sowe great Risshes, called Bullrisshes. 1611 Bible Ex. ii. 3 She tooke for him an arke of bul-rushes. 1652 Culpepper Eng. Physic. 191 The Bul-rushes and others of the soft and smooth kindes. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xiii. 153 There are many plants nearly allied to the grasses; as..Club-rush or Bulrush. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 46 Nodding bulrush down its drowk head hings. 1867 Parkman Jesuits N. Amer. xvi. (1875) 215 A dense growth of tall bulrushes. |
2. fig. In allusion to the fragility of the bulrush, or its delusive appearance of strength.
| 1646 J. Hall Horae Vac. 37 We leane on the bulrush of our oune merits. 1672 Bramhall Vind. Grotius i, Compare those..Fellows, and Scholars, who were turned out of our Universities, with those bulrushes in comparison, whom for the most part they introduced. 1861 Motley Dutch Rep. II. 250 To wield so slight a bulrush against a man who had just been girded with the consecrated sword of the Pope. |
3. Phrases.
to bow the head like a bulrush, in allusion to Isaiah lviii. 8.
† to seek (find) a knot in a bulrush,
Lat. nodum in scirpo quærere, to find difficulties where there are none. So sarcastically,
† to take away every knot in the bulrush.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 436 Myne opposed adversary will seeke after a knott in a Bullrush as the Proverbe is. 1611 Bible Isa. lviii. 8 Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush? 1662 Chandler Van Helmont's Oriat. 199 The Schools did presume to have taken away every knot in the Bulrush. 1767 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. II. xi. 162 Do we wish you..to hang your heads like a bulrush? |
4. Comb. and
attrib., as
bulrush-bed,
bulrush-bridge,
bulrush-cradle,
bulrush-fetter,
bulrush-hurdle; also
bulrush-like adj.| 1675 Hobbes Odyss. (1677) 66 Then on a *bulrush-bed himself he laid. 1842 Tennyson Morte d'Arthur 135 Sir Bedivere..plunged Among the bulrush-beds, and clutch'd the sword. |
| 1706 Phillips, *Bulrush Bridge (in the Art of War) a Bridge made of many bundles of Bullrushes bound together and cover'd with Planks. |
| 1627 N. Carpenter Achitophel (1629) 27 Whence could Moses haue better deriued his greatnesse..than from the *bulrush cradle? |
| 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint. (1858) 108 Shall straw and *bul-rush-fetters temper his short hour? |
| 1658 Rowland Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 916 They then dry it [the wax] on a *bul-rush hurdle by day and by night in the open air. |
| 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. i. 1250 To shake the head, or hang it *Bul⁓rush-like. |