birkie

American  

[bur-kee, bir-kee] / ˈbɜr ki, ˈbɪr ki /

noun

Scot.

1. an aggressive, independent man.

---

birkie British  

/ ˈbɪrkɪ /

noun

1. a spirited or lively person

2. a foolish posturer

---

Etymology

Origin of birkie

First recorded in 1715–25; of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

birkie

And how do you think, my braw birkie, that you are to pass for a tramping fiddler?'

From Redgauntlet by Scott, Walter, Sir

Div a look like an English birkie, or ane o’ the gentry?’

From The Disentanglers by Lang, Andrew

Hardly was his back turned, and amaist before ye could cry Jack Robison, in comes the birkie and the very young leddy the auld gentleman described arm and arm thegither, smoodging and lauching like daft.

From Amusing Prose Chap Books by Various

And there will be Kempleton's birkie, A boy no sae black at the bane; But as to his fine Nabob fortune, We'll e'en let the subject alane.

From Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Burns, Robert

"Bring me an inkhorn and a goose-quill!" she cried to the dame of the inn, forgetting that she had donned her maid's clothes again, and speaking in the hectoring voice of the birkie student.

From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)