[a. OF. bourle tuft of wool; cf. Sp. borla tuft, tassel, and BURR.]
1. A small knot or lump in wool or cloth.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 56. Burle of clothe, tumentum.
1870. Slater, Colours, 39. These spots or ‘burls’ arise from portions of cotton intermixed with the wool.
1879. in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 342/1. The burler … carefully removes any knots or burls.
† 2. transf. A small lump or rising in the skin; a pimple or pustule. Obs. (Cf. BUR sb. 5.)
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 220. The powder of the Hedge-hogs skin, being mingled with oil by anointment, taketh away the burles in the face.
1651. Culpepper, Astrol. Judgem. Dis. (1658), 82. The Sun causeth Pimples and Burles in the Face.
† 3. The rudiment or bud of a red deer’s horn; see quot. Obs. (Cf. BUR sb. 6.)
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Bosse, Our wood-men call [the bump], if it bee a red deeres, the burle or seale, and, if a fallow deeres, the button.
4. A knot in wood (U.S.).
1886. E. S. Morse, Japan. Homes, iii. 133. If it is gnarled or tortuous in grain, or if it presents knots or burls, it is all the more desirable.
1887. Advance (Chicago), 10 March, 145/1. From each ragged wound grew a burl.
