▪ I. bur, burr, n.
(bɜː(r))
Forms: 4 borre, 4–7 burre, 6– bur, 7– burr.
[app. identical or cogn. with Da. borre bur, burdock, Sw. borre sea-urchin, and in comb. kard-borre burdock, though the word is not found in ON., nor in Eng. before the 14th c. A derivation from F. bourre ‘rough hair, flock of wool’, labours under the difficulty that the F. word is not found ever to have had the sense which Eng. bur shares with Da. and Sw. borre; nor does the Eng. word show the wider sense of F. bourre.
The spelling of this and various other words or senses of words, phonetically and perhaps even etymologically identical with it, is very unsettled: in nearly all burr is an earlier spelling, but in the present word bur is now usual. See further under burr.]
1. a. Any rough or prickly seed-vessel or flower-head of a plant: esp. the flower-head of the Burdock (Arctium lappa); also, the small seed-vessel of the Goose-grass (Galium aparine) and other plants; the husk of the chestnut.
| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 8290 Togider thai cleued..So with other doth the burre. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 56 Burre, lappa, glis. a 1547 J. Heywood Four P's in Dodsley (1780) I. 87 Hys eares as ruged as burres. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. i. iii. 13 They are but burs, Cosen, throwne vpon thee in holiday foolerie..our very petty-coates will catch them. 1684 R. Waller Nat. Exper. 87 Like the Burre or Husk of a Chest⁓nut. 1779 Mrs. Delany Lett. Ser. ii. II. 425 Goose grass or cleavers..does not bear burrs (which are the seed vessels) till after the time of its flowring. c 1817 Hogg Tales & Sk. III. 316 The burr of a Scots thistle. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. III. 87 Fruits, beset with prickles, are truly burs, clinging very readily to any object. 1874 Roe Open. Chestnut Burr xiii, She took the burr from his hand and plucking out the chestnut tossed the burr away. |
b. Phr.
to stick (cleave, cling, etc.) like a bur.
| c 1330 [see above]. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (1847) 43 Together they cleve more fast then do burres. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. i. iii. 189, I am a kind of Burre, I shal sticke. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull (1727) 59 When a fellow stuck like a bur, that there was no shaking him off. 1810 Crabbe Borough v, Friends who will hang like burs upon his coat. 1865 Merivale Rom. Emp. VIII. lxiv. 81 It fastens itself like a burr on the memory. |
c. The female catkin or ‘cone’ of the hop before fertilization. [Possibly a different word: in
Fr. the vine when coming into bud is said to be
en bourre;
cf. 5.]
| 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. I. 396 The male hop has its..pollen previously perfected, so as to impregnate the stigma or bur of the female. Ibid. 403 About the middle of this month [July] the hop..begins to put forth bloom, which is called ‘coming out into bur’. 1881 Whitehead Hops 51 It is worse than useless to wash the plants after they are in burr, or blossom. |
2. Any plant which produces burs,
esp. Arctium lappa (the Burdock), and the genus
Xanthium.
| 1480 Cath. Angl. 48 A Burre..paliurus. 1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples 38 a, The great Burre, which is more commonly known then commended. 1585 Lloyd Treas. Health F viij, The rote of a little burre sodden in Vinegar. 1634 Milton Comus 350 Where may she wander now..amongst rude burs and thistles? 1815 Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1845) I. 33 We found ourselves..among sand-hills, stunted bushes, burs, and phoke. 1842 Tennyson Day-Dream 66 Bur and brake and briar. |
3. fig. That which clings like a bur; a thing or person difficult to get rid of or ‘shake off’.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 260 Hang off thou cat, thou bur. 1633 Heywood Eng. Trav. iii. Wks. 1874 IV. 51 This burre will still cleaue to me; what, no meanes To shake him off? 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Burre, a Hanger on, or Dependant. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 119 The burr has a pawky expression that's no canny. |
4. fig. ‘Bur in the throat’: anything that appears to stick in the throat or that produces a choking sensation, accumulation of phlegm, huskiness; ‘a lump in the throat’.
| 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xx. 306 Smoke and smorþre..Til he be bler-eyed oþer blynde · and þe borre [v.r. burre] in hus þrote. 1609 Ev. Wom. in Hum. ii. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, Theres hemming indeede, like a Cat..with a burre in her throate. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. Wks. 1738 I. 74 Their honest..natures coming to the Universities..were sent home again with..a scholastical Bur in their throats. 1749 Chesterfield Lett. II. ccxiii. 319, I hemm'd once or twice (for it gave me a bur in my throat). |
5. a. A knob or knot in a tree; also, one of the ‘buds’ or pimples characteristic of the farcy. [Perhaps a distinct word:
cf. F.
bourre vine-bud (see 1 c)
bourrelet ‘round swelling on a tree’.]
| 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. II. s.v. Maple, That which is fullest of Knots and Burs is of greatest Value. 1725 Lond. Gaz. No. 6397/2 Several Burs, Remains of the Farcy. 1869 Masters Veg. Terat. 347 The large ‘gnaurs’ or ‘burrs’, met with in elms, etc., also in certain varieties of apples. |
b. An ornamental veneering wood or veneer,
esp. of walnut, containing knots. Also
attrib., as
burr-walnut.
Cf. burl n.1 4 b.
| 1885 Spons' Mech. Own Bk. 357 Walnut burrs are best cut with scissors. 1901 Tradesman's Catal. 1 Bedroom Suite, in solid American Walnut and Burr. 1908 Daily Report 5 Sept. 8/2 A burr-walnut armoire. 1923 Daily Mail 23 Jan. 1 Sideboard in oak..with finely figured panels of burr walnut. 1938 Times 17 Oct. 8/5 The cabinet work is in two shades of burr walnut. |
6. a. The rounded knob forming the base of a deer's horn. [
Cf. burl, bud of a deer's horn.]
| 1575 Turberv. Bk. Venerie 236 The round roll of pyrled horne that is next to the head of an harte is called the Burre. 1677 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1706) 65 The Bur is next the Head; and that which is about the Bur, is called Pearles. 1736 Dale in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 386 The Moose hath a branched Brow-Antler between the Burr and the Palm. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 148 Horns..with a branch above the burr pointing forward. |
b. (See
quot.)
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Burrs denote bits of flesh adjoining to the horns of a beef's hide, cut off by poor women after it is brought to market. |
7. dial. See
quots. [? from sense 1.]
| 1863 Atkinson Danby Provinc., N. Riding Yorksh., Bur, the stone or other obstacle placed behind the wheel. 1875 Whitby Gloss. (E.D.S.), Bur, (1) an impediment; an annoyance; (2) the drag-chain and shoe for fastening up a carriage wheel when going down a hill. |
8. Comb., as
bur-breeding,
bur-head,
bur-leaf-,
bur-root;
bur-bark, the fibrous bark of
Triumfetta semi-triloba, a tropical shrub bearing prickly fruits or burs;
bur-flag = bur-reed;
bur-grass,
Sc. ? a species of Carex;
bur-knot = bur 6:
bur-marigold, popular name of the genus
Bidens;
† bur-nettle, perhaps
Urtica pilulifera;
bur-oak,
Quercus macrocarpa of N. America;
bur-parsley, the genus
Caucalis,
esp. C. daucoides, an umbelliferous weed with prickly fruit;
bur-reed, common name of the genus
Sparganium;
bur-thistle,
Carduus lanceolatus, also called Spear-thistle;
bur-weed,
Xanthium strumarium; also other plants producing burs, as
Galium aparine (Goose-grass),
Caucalis nodosa, and the genus
Triumfetta. See also
burdock.
| 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 233 The *Bur-Bark. The plant is common in Jamaica. |
| 1630 Drayton Muses Elysium iii. (R.) By the rough *bur breeding docks Ranker than the oldest fox. |
| 1834 Brit. Husb. i. xxix. 463 A coarse kind of grass called *‘bur-grass’. |
| 1840 Browning Sordello v. 412 ‘Spear-heads for battle, *burr-heads for the joust.’ |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 48 A *Burre hylle, lappetum, est locus vbi crescunt lappe. |
| 1615 Lawson Orch. & Gard. iii. vii. (1668) 15 A *bur-knot..taken from an Apple-tree. |
| 1634 Bp. Hall Occas. Med. cxiii. Wks. (1808) 204 On a *bur-leaf. 1833 in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. No. 1. 29. |
| 1879 Prior Plant-n., *Bur Marigold, a composite flower allied to the marigold, with seeds that adhere to the clothes like burrs. |
| 1713 Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 36 Common *Bur-Nettle. |
| 1815 D. Drake Cincinnati ii. 82 The most valuable timber trees are the..*bur oaks. 1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 704/2 The bur oak (Q. lobata). 1888 Ibid. XXIII. 808/1 The burr oak (Q. macrocarpa) has almost as wide a range as the white oak. 1962 Victoria & Albert Museum Internat. Art Treasures Exhib. 55/1 A Louis XV Tortoiseshell Casket on burr oak. |
| 1865 C. A. Johns in Treas. Bot. I. 241 The *Bur Parsley..is a British plant, growing in corn-fields in a chalky soil. |
| 1597 Gerard Herbal i. xxx. §2. 41 These plants of some are called Sparganium..I rather call them *Burre Reede. 1769 Sir J. Hill Fam. Herbal (1789) 98 Bur-Reed, a common water-plant, with rough heads of seeds. 1883 G. C. Davies in Pall Mall G. 26 Oct. 4/2 The eye to see beauty in bur-reeds and sweet-sedges. |
| 1650 tr. Bacon's Life & Death 43 Asparagus, pith of Artichokes and *Burre-roots boiled. |
| 1787 Burns Ep. Miss Scott ii, The rough *burr-thistle, spreading wide. |
| 1783 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. (Morell) i. s.v. Burr, *Burrweed, Sparganium ramosum. 1882 G. Allen Colours of Fl. iv. 84 Unless..like..Xanthium strumarium, burweed, they have declined as far as colourless or green florets. |
¶ See also
burr n. in all senses.
▪ II. bur, v.1 [f. prec.: cf. also burr n.6] trans. To remove burs from (wool): see
burring.
▪ III. bur, v.2 dial. [f. bur n. 5.] trans. (See
quots.).
| 1863 Atkinson Danby Provinc., N. Riding Yorksh., Bur, to block or stop the wheel of a waggon or cart..by..a stone. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Bur, to maintain an object in position by blockage or leverage, as..a partially raised weight is burred up from the ground with a crowbar. |
▪ IV. bur obs. f. birr,
bower n.1