Also burgie. [Etymology unknown: senses 1 and 2 may be unconnected.]
1. A small tapered flag or pennant, three-cornered (or swallow-tailed), used by cutters, yachts, etc., generally as a distinguishing flag.
1831. Observer, 14 Feb., 4/2. The burgee will vary according to the tonnage of the yachts.
1848. Blackw. Mag., LXIII. 87. She allowed her burgee to droop listlessly, flapping it against her mast.
1862. Lond. Rev., 16 Aug., 139. The Commodore ‘makes’ eight o’clock, and up go all the ensigns and burgees.
1884. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxxix. 294. A pretty burgee was selected as a distinguishing flag.
2. A kind of small coal suitable for burning in the furnaces of engines.
1867. Simmonds, Commercial Dict., Burgie [also in sense 1].
