birr

plural birrs

1. ScotlandStrength, vigor, energy.

   Then steer thro' life wi' birr an' vigour

   1789, Sillar, Poems

   5 more examples

   Ye'll be sae kind as let me see How this same bird o' yours can flee. T'oblige ye, friend, I winna stand — Syne loos'd the falcon frae his hand. Unhooded, up she sprang wi' birr, While baith stood staring after her.

   1720, Allan Ramsay, “The Lure”, in Poems

   Your chanter sets us a ' a-steer, Get out your pipes and blaw wi' birr, We'll dance the Highland fling

   1851, William Mitchison, Hand-Book of the Songs of Scotland, page 202

   The congregation sang them with such ' birr and go.'

   1894, Dickson, Auld Precentor

   The late David Kennedy, the eininent Scottish vocalist, sang it with great birr.

   1901, Robert Ford, Vagabond songs and ballads of Scotland, page 108

   Bleak winter reigns, ilk hill's o'erlaid wi' snaw, Cauld frae the north wi' bir the tempests blaw.

   1777 October, Marion, “Marion: A Pastoral”, in Weekly Magazine or Edinburgh Amusement, volume 31, page 63

2. ScotlandThe force of movement; rush, impetus, momentum, driving force.

   And away down, in full birr, to the Duke's gate.

   1828, Moir, Mansie Wauch

   3 more examples

   A chaise in full birr came upon her and knocked her down.

   1822, Galt, Provost

   With what a birr he made it flee from his hand along the ice.

   1876, Whitehead, Daft Davie

   The tither hole, the tither eik, To bang the birr o' winter's anger, And had the hurdies out o' langer.

   1976, David Craig, Scottish Literature and the Scottish People, 1680-1830, page 244

3. ScotlandA whirring noise.

   O' the sounds o' love and joy, There's nane sae pleasant as the birr o' Scotland's spinnin' wheel.

   1837, Nicoll, Poems

   5 more examples

   Close by the ingle sat his widow Elsie enjoying its warmth, and listening to the birr of her wheel.

   1851, James Grant, The Scottish Cavalier: An Historical Romance, page 88

   When the British Tommies heard the "birr" of the five-inch Canadian shells they all asked whose they were.

   1916, Colonel J.A. Currie, “XVII The Battle of Neuve Chapelle”, in The Red Watch, With the First Canadian Division in Flanders, Reprint edition, Project Gutenberg, published 2009

   The boom of her large, and the birr of her small, wheel were music to my young ear on awakening in the mornings.

   1969, Alexander Durand Cameron, Living in Scotland, 1760-1820, page 18

   The birr of the spinning wheel , the clack and thump of the handloom are no longer to be heard, linen-spinning on the wheel – once a staple occupation for so many women – is now virtually a forgotten art.

   1979, Alastair J. Durie, The Scottish Linen Industry in the Eighteenth Century, page 1

   A birr! a whirr! the salmon's out, Far on the rushing river; Onward he holds with sudden leap, Or plunges through the whirlpool deep, A desperate endeavour!

   2012, Michael Balfour, Mysterious Scotland: Enigmas, Secrets and Legends

4. ScotlandA strong trilling.

   Gray possesses an unfortunate East of Scotland birr that suggests a 21-year-old student interviewing for his first job.

   2011 April 24, Kevin McKenna, “Labour needs to challenge Alex Salmond – and quickly”, in The Guardian

   3 more examples

   Nae mair he will wi' rattlin' birr, Sing to his soul-inspirin' girr, The dormant Gothamites to stir, His powers to heed;

   1865, Peter Mackenzie, Reminiscences of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, page 213

   […] can only be accounted for on the supposition that they recognise the resemblance it bears to their national pipe, and believe in nothing without a "sough", whether it be the "birr" of the drone, or the more dissonant but characteristic falsetto that governs the higher notes of the "chaunter".

   1993, Scottish Studies - Volumes 31-33, page 59

   At all events, the vocabulary of Scots is not only the key to much of our literature, but an asset we should cherish and use to give smeddum and birr to our fushionless English.

   1993, Paul H. Scott, “A Rich Vocabulary”, in Books in Scotland - Issues 45-56

present singular third person birrs · participle present birring · participle past birred · past birred

1. ScotlandTo make a whirring noise; make a noise like that of revolving wheels, or of millstones at work.

   The muircock birrs at yer snell ha' door , An' fyles blawin' drift yer sheep will smore,

   1925, Charles Stewart Black, The Scots Magazine - Volume 4, page 256

   2 more examples

   if it is ordained that ye must forget him, ye will banish him from your mind the mair easily that ye ken nae mair o' him than ye do o' the bird that birrs past ye in the wood—that it has a bonny feather in its tail."

   1869, John Mackay Wilson, Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII

   The gudewife birrs wi ' the wheel a' day, Three threeds an' a thrum, Three threeds an' a thrum,

   1883, Edwin Paxton Hood, Scottish Characteristics, page 336

2. ScotlandTo lurch or set to spinning.

   When wark had ceased - fiel', Lads knitted, lassies trig an' clean, Did birr the spinnin' wheel;

   1885, Charles Stewart, “Auld Granny Mucklejohn's View of the Times”, in David Herschell Edwards, editor, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets

   3 more examples

   His cowt grew reezy, its lang tail 'Twad swash, and lugs wad birr up, At length it cuist him, and did trail Him hame, by fit i'e stirrup,

   1824, “The Burning O' The Bible”, in John Mactaggart, editor, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, page 499

   She's bow't i' the bacck, has a growth on her shouther, And hirples in daytime when steerin ' frae hame ; But nichtly birrs aff like a rocket o ' puother, And reels ' mang the staurs on a broomstick o ' fame .

   1889, David Herschell Edwards, editor, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets, page 192

   The swankies lap thro' mire and slike, Wow ! as their heads did birr: They yowph'd the ba' frae dike to dike, Wi ' unco' speed and virr,

   1999, Duncan Glen, Scottish Literature: A New History from 1299 to 1999, page 54

plural birrs

1. The currency of Ethiopia, divided into 100 santims.

   Synonyms: ETB

plural Birrs

1. uncountableusuallyA surname.
2. uncountableusuallyA community in Middlesex Centre municipality, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.
3. uncountableusuallyA town in County Offaly, Ireland, originally named Parsonstown (Irish grid ref N 0605).
4. uncountableusuallyA municipality in Aargau canton, Switzerland.