burr definition | Dictionary.com

burr

1 [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, hand-held, 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.

–verb (used with object)

5.	to form a rough point or edge on.

deburr.

Also, bur (for defs. 1, 3).

Origin:
1605–15; sp. var. of bur ¹

burr

2 [bur]

–noun

1.	a washer placed at the head of a rivet.

2.	a blank punched out of a piece of sheet metal.

Also, bur.

Origin:
1375–1425; late ME burrewez (pl.), buruhe circle, var. of brough round tower; see broch

burr

3 [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.

–verb (used without object)

5.	to speak with a burr.

6.	to speak roughly, indistinctly, or inarticulately.

7.	to make a whirring sound.

–verb (used with object)

8.	to pronounce (words, sounds, etc.) with a burr.

Origin:
1750–60; appar. both imit. and associative, the sound being thought of as rough like a bur

burr

4 [bur]

–noun

burstone.

Also, buhr.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME burre, prob. so called from its roughness

Burr

[bur]

–noun

Aaron, 1756–1836, vice president of the U.S. 1801–05.

bur⋅stone

[bur-stohn]

–noun

1.	any of various siliceous rocks used for millstones.

2.	a millstone of such material.

Also, buhrstone, burrstone.

Also called buhr, burr.

Origin:
bur(r) ⁴ + stone

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To burr

bur¹ also burr (bûr)

1. A rough prickly husk or covering surrounding the seeds or fruits of plants such as the chestnut or the burdock.
2. A plant producing such husks or coverings.
A persistently clinging or nettlesome person or thing.
A rough protuberance, especially a burl on a tree.
Any of various rotary cutting tools designed to be attached to a drill.

[Middle English burre, of Scandinavian origin.]

burr¹ (bûr)

A rough edge or area remaining on material, such as metal, after it has been cast, cut, or drilled.
Variant of bur¹.

tr.v. burred, burr·ing, burrs

To form a burr on.
To remove burrs from.

[Variant of bur¹.]

burr² also bur (bûr)

A trilling of the letter r, usually made with the tip of the tongue and characteristic of Scottish speech.
A buzzing or whirring sound.

v.   burred, burr·ing, burrs also burs

v.   tr.
To pronounce with a burr.
v.   intr.

To speak with a burr.
To make a buzzing or whirring sound.

[Imitative.]

burr³ also bur (bûr)

n. A washer that fits around the smaller end of a rivet.

[Middle English burre, ring, disk, alteration of burwhe, circle, disk.]

Burr (bûr)

American politician who became Vice President of the United States (1801-1805) under Thomas Jefferson after a deadlock in the electoral college was broken by the House of Representatives. On July 11, 1804, Burr mortally wounded his rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel and later fled south where he was involved in a mysterious conspiracy to establish an independent nation in Mexico and the Southwest. Tried for treason, he was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Burr

Burr\, n. [See Bur.] (Bot.) 1. A prickly seed vessel. See Bur, 1.

2. The thin edge or ridge left by a tool in cutting or shaping metal, as in turning, engraving, pressing, etc.; also, the rough neck left on a bullet in casting.

The graver, in plowing furrows in the surface of the copper, raises corresponding ridges or burrs. --Tomlinson.

3. A thin flat piece of metal, formed from a sheet by punching; a small washer put on the end of a rivet before it is swaged down.

4. A broad iron ring on a tilting lance just below the gripe, to prevent the hand from slipping.

5. The lobe or lap of the ear.

6. [Probably of imitative origin.] A guttural pronounciation of the letter r, produced by trilling the extremity of the soft palate against the back part of the tongue; rotacism; -- often called the Newcastle, Northumberland, or Tweedside, burr.

7. The knot at the bottom of an antler. See Bur, n., 8.

Burr

Burr\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Burred; p. pr. & vb. n. Burring.] To speak with burr; to make a hoarse or guttural murmur. --Mrs. Browning.

burr

"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 (1393), which was a figure of speech for "feel a choking sensation, huskiness." The Scottish -r- is a lingual trill, not a true burr.

Main Entry: burr
variant of BUR

burr (bûr)
n.
Variant of bur.

bur also burr (bûr) Pronunciation Key
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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