birr

noun

1. (Scotland)Strength, vigor, energy.

   “Ye'll be sae kind as let me see How this same bird o' yours can flee. T'oblige ye, friend, I winna stand — Syne loos'd the falcon frae his hand. Unhooded, up she sprang wi' birr, While baith stood staring after her.”

   “Then steer thro' life wi' birr an' vigour”

   “Your chanter sets us a ' a-steer, Get out your pipes and blaw wi' birr, We'll dance the Highland fling”

   “The congregation sang them with such ' birr and go.'”

   “The late David Kennedy, the eininent Scottish vocalist, sang it with great birr.”

2. (Scotland)The force of movement; rush, impetus, momentum, driving force.

   “A chaise in full birr came upon her and knocked her down.”

   “And away down, in full birr, to the Duke's gate.”

   “With what a birr he made it flee from his hand along the ice.”

   “The tither hole, the tither eik, To bang the birr o' winter's anger, And had the hurdies out o' langer.”

3. (Scotland)A whirring noise.

   “O' the sounds o' love and joy, There's nane sae pleasant as the birr o' Scotland's spinnin' wheel.”

   “Close by the ingle sat his widow Elsie enjoying its warmth, and listening to the birr of her wheel.”

   “When the British Tommies heard the "birr" of the five-inch Canadian shells they all asked whose they were.”

   “The boom of her large, and the birr of her small, wheel were music to my young ear on awakening in the mornings.”

   “The birr of the spinning wheel , the clack and thump of the handloom are no longer to be heard, linen-spinning on the wheel – once a staple occupation for so many women – is now virtually a forgotten art.”

4. (Scotland)A strong trilling.

   “Nae mair he will wi' rattlin' birr, Sing to his soul-inspirin' girr, The dormant Gothamites to stir, His powers to heed;”

   “[…] can only be accounted for on the supposition that they recognise the resemblance it bears to their national pipe, and believe in nothing without a "sough", whether it be the "birr" of the drone, or the more dissonant but characteristic falsetto that governs the higher notes of the "chaunter".”

   “At all events, the vocabulary of Scots is not only the key to much of our literature, but an asset we should cherish and use to give smeddum and birr to our fushionless English.”

   “Gray possesses an unfortunate East of Scotland birr that suggests a 21-year-old student interviewing for his first job.”

5. The currency of Ethiopia, divided into 100 santims.

verb

1. (Scotland)To make a whirring noise; make a noise like that of revolving wheels, or of millstones at work.

   “if it is ordained that ye must forget him, ye will banish him from your mind the mair easily that ye ken nae mair o' him than ye do o' the bird that birrs past ye in the wood—that it has a bonny feather in its tail."”

   “The gudewife birrs wi ' the wheel a' day, Three threeds an' a thrum, Three threeds an' a thrum,”

   “The muircock birrs at yer snell ha' door , An' fyles blawin' drift yer sheep will smore,”

2. (Scotland)To lurch or set to spinning.

   “His cowt grew reezy, its lang tail 'Twad swash, and lugs wad birr up, At length it cuist him, and did trail Him hame, by fit i'e stirrup,”

   “She's bow't i' the bacck, has a growth on her shouther, And hirples in daytime when steerin ' frae hame ; But nichtly birrs aff like a rocket o ' puother, And reels ' mang the staurs on a broomstick o ' fame .”

   “When wark had ceased - fiel', Lads knitted, lassies trig an' clean, Did birr the spinnin' wheel;”

   “The swankies lap thro' mire and slike, Wow ! as their heads did birr: They yowph'd the ba' frae dike to dike, Wi ' unco' speed and virr,”

name

1. (uncountable, usually)A surname.
2. (uncountable, usually)A community in Middlesex Centre municipality, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.
3. (uncountable, usually)A town in County Offaly, Ireland, originally named Parsonstown (Irish grid ref N 0605).
4. (uncountable, usually)A municipality in Aargau canton, Switzerland.