burr – English noun declension

English noun forms of burr

Noun: burr
Singularburr
Pluralburrs

Sample Sentences

  • […] nay Friar, I am a kind of Burre, I ſhal ſticke. [c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 78:]
  • 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. [1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section X:]
  • You left a bunch of burrs on those parts yesterday. You've already been told not to miss the deburring operation.
  • But the graver, in ploughing furrows in the surface of the copper, raises corresponding ridges or burrs [1852, Charles Tomlinson, “Engraving”, in Cyclopædia of Useful Arts & Manufactures, page 607:]
  • 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 [1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter IV, in Le Morte Darthur, book XXI:]
  • burr or ring of iron behind the hand [1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry:]
  • The front of it was defended by an iron-plate, called a vam-plat, that is, an avant-plate, and behind it was a broad iron ring, called a burr. [1819, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia:]
  • We are made to witness a cathartic shuffling-off of mortalities and of hatreds: Mordred's pulling himself up to the 'burr' of Arthur's spear is Malory's own detail and one of the most memorable in the book. [2003, Thomas Howard Crofts, Fifteenth-century Malory, page 290:]
  • And when his body was against the burr of the spear, he took his sword in both his hands and he swung the sword above his head, and he smote King Arthur with the edge of the sword upon the helmet. [2012, Howard Pyle, The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur:]
  • Many saddles, especially those for use on warhorses, had high burr plates and cantles. this was especially important when knights began using stirrups and the couched lance. [2015, James B. Tschen-Emmons, Artifacts from Medieval Europe, page 280:]
  • We notice wild bees gathering sap in a burr of the third mango tree[.] [2022, Carol Maxwell, Northern Territory Literary Awards, page 58:]
  • burr grinder
  • The coffee guys insist that the single most important investment you can make if you brew coffee at home is a burr coffee grinder that crushes whole coffee beans by moving them through a grinding wheel. The burr chops the coffee into uniformly sized pieces, which enables the water to run through it and extract evenly. [2011, Michaele Weissman, God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee, HMH, →ISBN:]

Etymology

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