furze

plural furzes · alternative obsolete firrs

1. countableuncountableA thorny evergreen shrub, with yellow flowers, Ulex gen. et spp., of which Ulex europaeus is particularly common upon the plains and hills of Great Britain and Ireland.

   Gonz. Now would I giue a thouſand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground : Long heath, Browne firrs, any thing;[…]

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 1

   3 more examples

   At length, receiving his quarterly allowance of fifteen guineas, instead of discharging his debts he walk'd out of town, hid his gown in a furze bush, and footed it to London, […]

   1771–1790, Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography [Part 1]”, in John Bigelow, editor, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., published 1868, →OCLC, page 158

   “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 41

   Clumps of withered grass stood out on the hill-top; the furze bushes were black, and now and then a black shiver crossed the snow as the wind drove flurries of frozen particles before it.

   1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter VIII, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, page 97

   Synonyms: gorse, whin

plural Furzes

1. A surname.