burr

• (US) IPA^(key): /bɝ/
• Homophones: Burr, brr
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

From Middle English burre, perhaps related to Old English byrst (“bristle”). Cognate with Danish burre, borre (“burdock, burr”), Swedish borre (“sea-urchin”).

burr (plural burrs)

1. A sharp, pointy object, such as a sliver or splinter.
2. A bur; a seed pod with sharp features that stick in fur or clothing.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, X:

     But cockle, spurge, according to their law / Might propagate their kind, with none to awe, / You'd think; a burr had been a treasure trove.

3. A small piece of material left on an edge after a cutting operation.
   • 1852, Charles Tomlinson, “Engraving”, in Cyclopædia of Useful Arts & Manufactures‎, page 607:

     But the graver, in ploughing furrows in the surface of the copper, raises corresponding ridges or burrs

4. 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.
5. A broad iron ring on a tilting lance just below the grip, to prevent the hand from slipping.
6. The ear lobe.
7. The knot at the bottom of an antler.

• (kind of seed pod): sticker; bur

• burrish
• deburr

Onomatopoeia, influenced by bur. Compare to French bruire

burr (plural burrs)

1. A rough humming sound.
2. A uvular "r".

burr (third-person singular simple present burrs, present participle burring, simple past and past participle burred)

1. (transitive) To pronounce with a uvular "r".
2. (intransitive) To make a rough humming sound.
   • 1950, C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Collins, 1998, Chapter 7,

     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.

Origin uncertain.

burr (plural burrs)

1. (obsolete) 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

From burl.

burr (plural burrs)

1. (Britain) Alternative spelling of burl

• (Standard, Tosk) burrë

burr

1. (Gheg) husband
2. (Gheg) man