[f. the sb. There was a med.L. burillāre: see BURILLER.]
1. trans. To dress (cloth), esp. by removing knots and lumps; ‘to dress cloth as fullers do’ (J.).
1483. Cath. Angl., 48. To Burle clothe, extuberare.
1552. Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI., vi. § 27. If … Cloth … happen to be evil burled or wasted in the Mill.
1611. Markham, Countr. Content., II. v. (1668), 128. That the Cloth-worker or Sheer-man burle and dress it sufficiently.
1706. Phillips, Burl, to dress Cloath as Fullers do.
1730–6. Bailey, Burl, to pick out the Straws or Threads of Cloth which have not taken the Dye, as Cloth-drawers do.
1882. Beck, Draper’s Dict., Burl, to pick the burls from the surface of woollen cloths.
2. To pick out, remove (a lock or flock of wool).
1650. Charleton, Paradoxes, 26. The … Priest burles a small lock of wooll, from the … upper garment of the Saint.
1863. Morton, Cycl. Agric., Gloss. (E. D. S.), Burl, to cut away the dirty wool from the hind parts of a sheep.
† 3. To remove ‘burls’ from the face. nonce-use (see BURL sb. 2). Obs.
1648. Herrick, Hesper. (1869), 226. Of pushes Spalt has such a knottie race, He needs a tucker for to burle his face.
