pirn

[ purn, pirn ]

/ pɜrn, pɪrn /

noun British Dialect.

a weaver's bobbin, spool, or reel.

a fishing reel.

Nearby words

piriform muscle, pirithoüs, pirke avot, pirke avoth, pirl, pirn, piro, pirog, pirogen, pirogi, pirogue

Origin of pirn

1400–50; late Middle English pyrne < ?

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for pirn

Na, he juist said he'd forgotten a pirn, or his cruizey lamp, or ony thing.
A Window in Thrums|J. M. Barrie
"Ay, mony a pirn has 'Lisbeth filled to me," said Hendry, settling down to a reminiscence.
A Window in Thrums|J. M. Barrie
Fathom after fathom goes reeling from your pirn, but still you are barely able to drop the far fly into the distant curl.
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 21|Alexander Leighton
The first thing he saw was a half-finished reel of cotton—a pirn, he called it.
Robert Falconer|George MacDonald

So she spun at her yarn, and found more yarn on the “pirn” than she thought to find; which frightened her.
Witch Stories|E. Lynn (Elizabeth Lynn) Linton

British Dictionary definitions for pirn

pirn

/ (pɜːn, Scottish pɪrn) /

noun Scot

a reel or bobbin

(in weaving) the spool of a shuttle

a fishing reel

Word Origin for pirn

C15: of uncertain origin

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