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burred

[burd]
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adjective
  1. prickly or rough in texture.
  2. having a bur or burs.
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Origin of burred

First recorded in 1905–10; bur1 + -ed2

bur1

[bur]
noun
  1. a rough, prickly case around the seeds of certain plants, as the chestnut or burdock.
  2. any bur-bearing plant.
  3. something that adheres like a bur.
  4. Machinery. burr1(defs 1, 3).
  5. 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.
  6. Surgery. a cutting tool resembling that of a dentist, used for the excavation of bone.
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verb (used with object), burred, bur·ring.
  1. to extract or remove burs from.
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Origin of bur1

1300–50; Middle English burre, apparently cognate with Danish burre, Norwegian, Swedish borre bur

burr1

[bur]
noun
  1. Also buhr. a protruding, ragged edge raised on the surface of metal during drilling, shearing, punching, or engraving.
  2. a rough or irregular protuberance on any object, as on a tree.
  3. a small, handheld, power-driven milling cutter, used by machinists and die makers for deepening, widening, or undercutting small recesses.
  4. a lump of brick fused or warped in firing.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to form a rough point or edge on.
  2. deburr.
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Also bur (for defs 1, 3).

Origin of burr1

First recorded in 1605–15; spelling variant of bur1

burr3

[bur]
noun
  1. a pronunciation of the r-sound as a uvular trill, as in certain Northern English dialects.
  2. a pronunciation of the r-sound as an alveolar flap or trill, as in Scottish English.
  3. any pronunciation popularly considered rough or nonurban.
  4. a whirring noise.
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verb (used without object)
  1. to speak with a burr.
  2. to speak roughly, indistinctly, or inarticulately.
  3. to make a whirring sound.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to pronounce (words, sounds, etc.) with a burr.
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Origin of burr3

First recorded in 1750–60; apparently both imitative and associative, the sound being thought of as rough like a bur
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

ostracize, disregard, scold, boycott, ignore, scorn, shun, neglect, rebuff, humiliate, mortify, upstage, duck, cut, humble, slight, slur, scratch, disdain, ice

Examples from the Web for burred

Historical Examples

  • He winked them indignantly, strove to clear his burred throat.

    The Lash

    Olin L. Lyman

  • Then his stomach turned cold and his tongue grew thick and burred.

    Aladdin O'Brien

    Gouverneur Morris

  • They were rough-looking men, and they spoke in the burred Saxon-English of Warwickshire five hundred years ago.

    With the Black Prince

    William Osborn Stoddard

  • Use a small, light hammer, and gently tap round the edge of the bolt until it is burred over.

  • Either way will prevent splintering or a ragged or "burred" edge, where the bit leaves the wood.

    Woodworking for Beginners

    Charles Gardner Wheeler

British Dictionary definitions for burred

BUR

abbreviation for
  1. Myanmar (international car registration)
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Word Origin

from Burma

Burr

noun
  1. Aaron . 1756–1836, US vice-president (1800–04), who fled after killing a political rival in a duel and plotted to create an independent empire in the western US; acquitted (1807) of treason
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burr1

noun
  1. a small power-driven hand-operated rotary file, esp for removing burrs or for machining recesses
  2. a rough edge left on a workpiece after cutting, drilling, etc
  3. a rough or irregular protuberance, such as a burl on a tree
  4. British a burl on the trunk or root of a tree, sliced across for use as decorative veneer
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noun, verb
  1. a variant spelling of bur
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verb (tr)
  1. to form a rough edge on (a workpiece)
  2. to remove burrs from (a workpiece) by grinding, filing, etc; deburr
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Word Origin

C14: variant of bur

burr2

noun
  1. 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
  2. a whirring sound
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verb
  1. to pronounce (words) with a burr
  2. to make a whirring sound
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Word Origin

C18: either special use of bur (in the sense: rough sound) or of imitative origin

burr3

bur

noun
  1. a washer fitting around the end of a rivet
  2. a blank punched out of sheet metal
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Word Origin

C16 (in the sense: broad ring on a spear): variant of burrow (in obsolete sense: borough)

burr4

buhr or bur

noun
  1. short for buhrstone
  2. a mass of hard siliceous rock surrounded by softer rock
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Word Origin

C18: probably from bur, from its qualities of roughness

bur

noun
  1. a seed vessel or flower head, as of burdock, having hooks or prickles
  2. any plant that produces burs
  3. a person or thing that clings like a bur
  4. a small surgical or dental drill
  5. a variant spelling of burr 3, burr 4
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verb burs, burring or burred
  1. (tr) to remove burs from
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Also (for senses 1–4): burr

Word Origin

C14: probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Danish burre bur, Swedish kardborre burdock
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for burred

bur

n.

"prickly seed vessel of some plants," c.1300, burre, from a Scandinavian source (cf. Danish borre, Swedish hard-borre, Old Norse burst "bristle"), from PIE *bhars- (see bristle (n.)). Transferred 1610s to "rough edge on metal," which might be the source of the sense "rough sound of the letter -r-" (see burr).

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burr

n.

"rough sound of the letter -r-" (especially that common in Northumberland), 1760, later extended to "northern accented speech" in general. Possibly the sound of the word is imitative of the speech peculiarity itself, or it was adapted from one of the senses of bur (q.v.), perhaps from the phrase to have a bur in (one's) throat (late 14c.), which was a figure of speech for "feel a choking sensation, huskiness." OED says the Scottish -r- is a lingual trill, not a true burr.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
burred in Medicine

bur

n.
  1. A rotary cutting instrument used in dentistry for excavating decay, shaping cavity forms, and reducing tooth structure.
  2. A drilling tool for enlarging a trephine hole in the cranium.
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burr

(bûr)
n.
  1. Variant ofbur
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
burred in Science

bur

  1. A type of pseudocarp in which the outer surface possesses hooks or barbs. Burs become caught in the feathers or hair of animals, which then carry them away to disperse the seeds.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.