Also a protruding, ragged edge raised on the surface of metal during drilling, shearing, punching, or engraving.
a rough or irregular protuberance on any object, as on a tree.
a small, handheld, power-driven milling cutter, used by machinists and die makers for deepening, widening, or undercutting small recesses.
a lump of brick fused or warped in firing.
to form a rough point or edge on.
a pronunciation of the r- sound as a uvular trill, as in certain Northern English dialects.
a pronunciation of the r- sound as an alveolar flap or trill, as in Scottish English.
any pronunciation popularly considered rough or nonurban.
a whirring noise.
to speak with a burr.
to speak roughly, indistinctly, or inarticulately.
to make a whirring sound.
a small power-driven hand-operated rotary file, esp for removing burrs or for machining recesses
a rough edge left on a workpiece after cutting, drilling, etc
a rough or irregular protuberance, such as a burl on a tree
a burl on the trunk or root of a tree, sliced across for use as decorative veneer
to form a rough edge on (a workpiece)
to remove burrs from (a workpiece) by grinding, filing, etc; deburr
phonetics an articulation of (r) characteristic of certain English dialects, esp the uvular fricative trill of Northumberland or the retroflex r of the West of England
a whirring sound
to pronounce (words) with a burr
to make a whirring sound
a washer fitting around the end of a rivet
a blank punched out of sheet metal
short for buhrstone
a mass of hard siliceous rock surrounded by softer rock
First recorded in 1605–15; spelling variant of bur 1
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English burrewez (plural), buruhe “circle,” variant of brough “round tower”; see broch
First recorded in 1750–60; apparently both imitative and associative, the sound being thought of as rough like a bur
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English burre, probably so called from its roughness
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For years, Surf City conservatives like Gates have reveled in playing the burr in the saddle of deep blue California.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
Famous for his encyclopedic knowledge of the benchmark stock index and his fast-paced Brooklyn burr, he has been a markets data maven for everyone from Wall Street analysts to financial journalists.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 3, 2026
The following year, his balloon burst a mile above the ground in Virginia, and his re-attempt at the flight saw him wrecked among burr chestnut trees and almost killed.
From Salon • Nov. 3, 2024
Still, there’s a difference between a burr in one’s saddle and feeling like you’re sitting right on top of three or four other teams each pointing a pitchfork at your backside.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 22, 2024
It’s Sticky, who sticks to everything like a burr and is best friends with Goober, an ogre with terrible acne and a snotty nose—a bad combination even for an ogre.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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.
