a rough, prickly case around the seeds of certain plants, as the chestnut or burdock.
any bur-bearing plant.
something that adheres like a bur.
Machinery. burr.
Dentistry. a rotary cutting tool usually of steel or other hard metal shaped into a shank and a head, for removing carious material from teeth and preparing cavities for filling.
Surgery. a cutting tool resembling that of a dentist, used for the excavation of bone.
1300–50; Middle English burre, apparently cognate with Danish burre, Norwegian, Swedish borre bur
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The panel does not have the power to compel Andrew to appear in front of them, bur intends to ask questions related to information on Epstein's network and associates based on their "longstanding" friendship.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2025
It was going to be made for television, and somehow, it was unplugged from PBS, bur they already started pre-production, so they decided, we’ll make it as a Merchant Ivory film.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2024
Each acorn was painted with colored bands to indicate its species: red oak, bur oak, black oak, white oak, swamp white oak, scarlet oak, pin oak, willow oak.
From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2022
He has 152 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries, bur Wagner cautioned Murray’s mobility can present itself in a number of ways.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 21, 2022
In his eagerness, Old Dan ran head on into a bur oak tree.
From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls
June 24, '64; bur. in Poplar Grove Cem., grave 173, sec.
From In The Ranks From the Wilderness to Appomattox Court House by McBride, R. E.
Chinese Imperial Bur. of Mines, 1899, doing extensive exploration in interior of China.
From The Mirrors of Washington by Kirby, John
Holmes, W.H.: three articles on pottery, Rep. of Bur. of Ethnol., 1882-83, p.
From Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. by Münsterberg, Hugo
The airport project, known as Elevate BUR, has been overseen by the project management company Jacobs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Even after the rigors of 9/11 TSA security, BUR still feels like the mini-mart of airports, a place where you can just roll into in your jammies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
Her voice is low and gently burred, her affect is a funky mix of playfulness and precision.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2020
The patter, delivered in Mr. Silven’s smooth, slightly burred voice, is a little pat, as when he intones, “By coincidence, by fate, by destiny, a group of you have come together to predict the improbable.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2017
Camera shutters burred; the guizers yelled; and the longship, traveling in the opposite direction, scythed through the fire like a ghostly spectre.
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2015
But now OPA's drill burred deep into the rawest nerve of the U.S. citizen.
From Time Magazine Archive
He winked them indignantly, strove to clear his burred throat.
From The Lash by Lyman, Olin L.
Both tracks feature a sardonic Jagger half-singing, half-spitting his lines in a primitive rap over programmed beats and burring, blues-rock guitar riffs.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 28, 2017
James Garfield devised an adjustment knob and a turn-on switch for his burring roll which have been adopted throughout the plant.
From Time Magazine Archive
James Ramsay MacDonald is never so happy as when burring out sonorous periods on the subject of his great specialty "the Peace of the Wor-r-rld."
From Time Magazine Archive
As the dour old sheepherder, whose heart is as black as his dog, Black Wull, cinemaudiences may find squat Actor Will Fyffe's burring phrases difficult to understand, his meaning never.
From Time Magazine Archive
Max suppressed a groan, as the old man drew himself up and produced half a dozen sonorous burring groans from the drone.
From Three Boys or the Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai by Fenn, George Manville
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
