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.
“The holdup quite frankly is Marty Makary,” said Richard Burr, the former North Carolina senator who now leads a pro-vaping group, the Coalition for Smarter Regulation of Nicotine.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
“Companies are clearly prioritizing focus, scale and simplicity as they respond to shifting consumption patterns, trade pressures and slower demand,” said Ed Brown, chair of Burr and Forman’s Food and Beverage practice.
From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026
Koy and Iglesias are now part of a small fraternity of comics, including Kevin Hart, Dane Cook, Bill Burr and Larry the Cable Guy, who’ve sold out stadiums across the country.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2026
Nine years later this new story promises to expand on Le Carré's source material, and alongside Tom Hiddleston's British intelligence operative Jonathan Pine, it sees the return of his fellow spy Olivia Colman's Angela Burr.
From BBC • Dec. 28, 2025
Hamilton was certain that, once Burr recovered his wits and sense, “you will see the matter in the same light as me.”
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
