Also 7 burgh, 6–7 burre. [Derivation obscure: nor is it at all clear whether the senses under II and III ought not to be treated as separate words. But the co-existence of the form BURROW sb.5 (q.v.) with BURR sense 5, and its explanation as ‘a circle about the moon,’ seem to identify this with the burwhe, burrowe of the Promptorium, the phonetic variants being analogous to fur, furrow; while the form burgh, besides burre, as well as the sense of II, appears equally to point back to the same ME. forms. For the source of the ME. see BROUGH.]
I. 1. General sense: A circle.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 56. Burwhe, sercle [1499 burrowe], orbiculus.
II. A (? protecting) ring, etc.
† 2. A broad iron ring on a tilting spear just behind the place for the hand. Obs.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 327. Squyers and varlettes were … knockynge on hedes and burres on myghtye speres.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xxxvii. (1632), 427. Burre, or yron of a launce, [etc.].
1611. Dekker & Middleton, Roar. Girl, II. i. I’ll try one spear … though it prove too short by the burgh.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, IV. xiv. (1660), 338. The Burre … is a broad ring of Iron behind the … place made for the hand, which Burre is brought unto the Rest when the Tilter chargeth his Speare or Staffe.
3. A washer placed on the small end of a rivet before the end is swaged down; also (Gunnery) see quot. 1802.
1627. Feltham, Resolves, II. xxix. Wks. (1677), 218. A brawl … which with all the burrs of silence should have still stood firmly riveted.
1802. C. James, Mil. Dict., Bur [in Gunnery], a round iron ring, which serves to rivet the end of the bolt, so as to form a round head.
1851. Ord. & Regul. Roy. Engineers, § 11. 51. Leather Pipes, joined by Copper Rivets and Burs.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 5. Bolt and burr.
4. (See BURR-PUMP.]
III. 5. A circle of light round the moon (or a star); a BROUGH. The original sense seems to have been merely ‘circle, halo’; but in modern use there is usually the notion of a nebulous or nimbous disc of light enfolding the luminary; as if modified by association with BUR sb.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, Xantipp., 104. A burre about the moone is … a presage of a tempest.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., IV. lii. 463. The stars seem … surrounded with a sort of burs.
1802. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., XCII. 499. Of Stars with Burs, or Stellar Nebulæ.
1851. Nichol, Archit. Heav., 128. The halo itself gradually sinking into a bur, or an atmosphere around a star.
