burnsides
Americanplural noun
plural noun
Etymology
Origin of burnsides
An Americanism dating back to 1870–75; named after General A.E. Burnside
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It is generally believed by people who speak flippantly of 'side-burns,' 'sideboards,' etc., that burnsides were so named because they cluttered up both sides of their proprietor's countenance.
From Time Magazine Archive
The old bedesman delighted “to daunder down the burnsides and green shaws.”
From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
In summer they were always on the hills and by the burnsides.
From The Gold Of Fairnilee by Andrew Lang
Then Melville himself came in, brushing back his white tufted burnsides and licking his lips and blinking his eyes—looking for all the world like a cat at its toilet.
From The Deluge by David Graham Phillips
And, in any case, Edinburgh was but two days' journey from the Dullarg; two days on the road by the burnsides and over the heather hills was nothing to him.
From The Lilac Sunbonnet by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
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.
