a. Sc. [f. BIRSE sb.1 + -Y1.] = BRISTLY, BRISTLING lit. and fig.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. iv. 127. The monstre … With byrsy body.
1810. Tannahill, Poems (1846), 145. His black birsie beard.
1836. Scot. Month. Mag., July, 183. The creature was a birsie bodie.
