▪ I. birr, n.
(bɜː(r), Sc. bɪrr)
Forms: 4 bur, burre, bire, 4–6 bir, 4–5 bure, byre, 5 byrre, ber(e, beere, beare, 5–6 byr, birr, 7 burr(e, beir(e, biere, 7–8 birre, dial. beer, 9 bir, dial. ber, 8– birr.
[a. ON. byrr favouring wind (Sw., Da. bör fair wind, foul gale):—OTeut. *burjo-z (or buri-z), f. beran to bear. Sense 3 is, in part at least, of independent origin, imitating the sound which it names, and is to be compared with burr.]
† 1. A strong wind; esp. one that carries a vessel on. Obs.
| a 1325 Conception in Metr. Hom. Introd. 17 The bir it blew als he wald bid. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 148 Þe bur ber to hit baft, þat braste alle her gere. c 1400 Destr. Troy 12488 Thai..puld vp hor sailes, Hadyn bir at þere backe. |
2. The force of the wind, or of any moving body; momentum, impetus; rush. to take or fetch one's birr: to gather impetus for a leap by a short run or ‘ram-race.’
| 1382 Wyclif Isa. v. 28 His wheles as the byre [1388 feersnesse] of the tempest. ― Matt. viii. 32 Loo! in a greet bire, al the droue wente heedlynge in to the see. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3662 Brethly bessomes with byrre in berynes sailles. c 1450 Lonelich Grail xlv. 419 And to hire he ran with a ful gret ber. 1580 Sidney Arcadia 54 Carried with the Beere of violent loue. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcel. xxii. viii. 197 And giving way backward fetch their feese or beire againe. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Saulter, Il recule pour mieux saulter, He goes backe to take burre, or to leape the better. 1790 Burns Election Ball. iii, Thus I break aff wi' a' my birr. 1867 E. Waugh Owd Blanket ii. 37 in Lanc. Gloss., Thae'd no need to come i' sich a ber. |
† b. A charge in battle; an attack, a fight. Obs.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 290 I schal bide þe fyrst bur, as bare as I sitte. 1382 Wyclif 2 Sam. xi. 23 We, the bure made [Vulg. impetu facto], pursueden hem into the ȝate. c 1400 Destr. Troy 11141 All the bent of þat birr blody beronnen. c 1440 Bone Flor. 659 Garcy..arayed hys batels in that bere. |
c. A thrust, a violent push or blow; also fig.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 176 Such a burre myȝt make myn herte blunt. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1244 A ȝonge knight..suet to þe Duke With a bir on þe brest, þat backeward he ȝode. 1830 Galt Lawrie T. iii. xvi. (1849) 137 Dashed my head with such a bir against the branch of a prostrate tree. |
d. Bodily force exerted against anything, might.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2261 With alle þe bur in his body he ber it on lofte. 1382 Wyclif James iii. 4 Shippes..ben born aboute of a litel gouernayle, where the bire [impetus] of a man dressinge shal wole. 1674 Ray N.C. Wds. 5 Beer, Birre, Beare, force, might. With aw my beer (Chesh.), with all my force. 1823 Galt Entail III. vii. 70 Ye need na mair waste your bir about it. |
e. Force of pronunciation, energetic utterance.
| 1825 Ld. Cockburn Mem. ii. 133 What the Scotch call the Birr..the emphatic energy of his pronunciation. 1827 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 118 Just such a voice..in its laigh notes there's a sort of birr..that betokens power. 1883 W. Jolly J. Duncan xvii. 181 He told Charles the story with great birr. |
3. An energetic whirring sound, such as that of a moor-fowl's flight, the running-down of a clock, or the vigorous trilling of the letter r.
| 1837 R. Nicoll Poems (1842) 82 The birr o' Scotland's spinnin'-wheel. 1856 Strong Glasgow & Clubs 207 Never did a Parisian badaud rattle the R with greater birr. 1876 Smiles Sc. Natur. viii. (ed. 4) 136 The birr of the moorcock and the scream of the merlin. |
▪ II. birr, n.2
(bɪr)
Pl. birr, birrs.
[ad. Amharic bərr. Earlier used of various foreign silver coins, esp. dollars.]
The unit of currency in Ethiopia, consisting of 100 cents, which replaced the Ethiopian dollar in 1976; a note or coin of this value.
| 1976 Times 23 Sept. 6/1 Ethiopia is to introduce a new currency from October 14. The Ethiopian dollar will be replaced by the birr, with the same exchange rate in the international market. 1977 Statesman's Year-Bk. 1977–78 916 The Ethiopian birr..is based on 5.52 grains of fine gold. 1984 Daily Tel. 24 Nov. 16/4 The birr is linked to the dollar. 1991 R. Waldrop tr. Borer's Rimbaud in Abyssinia i. 22, I don't have any Ethiopian birrs yet, and charity seems suddenly an odious Western idea. |
▪ III. birr, v.
(bərr)
[f. prec.]
intr. To emit a whirring noise; to move rapidly with such a noise. Hence ˈbirring ppl. a.
| 1513 Douglas æneis ix. ix. 134 Ane gret staf slung, byrrand wyth felloun wecht. 1786 Burns Tam Samson's El. viii, Rejoice ye birring paitricks a'. 1791 A. Wilson Laurel Disp. Poet. Wks. 125 The lasses' wheels, thrang birring round the ingle. 1802 A. Campbell in Tales Borders (1863) I. 157 They were both seated in the gig, and birring it on merrily towards Carlisle. |