[Echoic: cf. CHIRR.] intr.
To make the sound described under CHURR sb.
(Expressive of a somewhat deeper and hoarser sound than chirr.)
1555. Fardle Facions, I. vi. 93. The Troglodites … sieme rather to busse or churre betwene the tieth, then to speake.
1648. Earl Westmoreland, Otia Sacra (1879), 139. The Partridge calls its Mate, and churrs.
1707. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv. (1715), I. vi. So have I heard … A Hedge-bird churring sit hard by.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, III. 69. The night-hawk churred softly round their path.
b. trans.
1834. R. Mudie, Brit. Birds (1841), I. 89. They may be … heard churring an end of their exhilarating stave.
Hence Churring vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 73. Heare eke their hurring and their churring song.
1611. Cotgr., Cabab … The chucking, churring, or iouking, of a Partridge.
1873. G. C. Davies, Mount. & Mere, xi. 93. The churring of a pair of nightjars around an oak.
Churre, obs. form of CHARE v., to turn.
