burl

• burr (UK)

From Middle English burle (“a knot or flaw in cloth”), from Old French bourle (“flocks or ends of threads which disfigure cloth”), diminutive of Old French bourre, from Medieval Latin burra (“flock of wool, coarse hair”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɝl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɜːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)l

burl (countable and uncountable, plural burls)

1. A tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner; a burr knot.
2. Wood of a mottled veneer, usually cut from such a growth.
3. A knot or lump in thread or cloth.

burl (third-person singular simple present burls, present participle burling, simple past and past participle burled)

1. To remove the knots in cloth.

• “burl”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• “burl”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “burl”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “burl”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• blur