| 释义 |
▪ I. birr, n.
(bɜː(r), Sc. bɪrr)
Forms: 4 bur, burre, bire, 4–6 bir, 4–5 bure, byre, 5 byrre, ber(e, beere, beare, 5–6 byr, birr, 7 burr(e, beir(e, biere, 7–8 birre, dial. beer, 9 bir, dial. ber, 8– birr.
[a. ON. byrr favouring wind (Sw., Da. bör fair wind, foul gale):—OTeut. *burjo-z (or buri-z), f. beran to bear. Sense 3 is, in part at least, of independent origin, imitating the sound which it names, and is to be compared with burr.]
†1. A strong wind; esp. one that carries a vessel on. Obs.
a1325Conception in Metr. Hom. Introd. 17 The bir it blew als he wald bid. c1325E.E. Allit. P. C. 148 Þe bur ber to hit baft, þat braste alle her gere. c1400Destr. Troy 12488 Thai..puld vp hor sailes, Hadyn bir at þere backe.
2. The force of the wind, or of any moving body; momentum, impetus; rush. to take or fetch one's birr: to gather impetus for a leap by a short run or ‘ram-race.’
1382Wyclif Isa. v. 28 His wheles as the byre [1388 feersnesse] of the tempest. ― Matt. viii. 32 Loo! in a greet bire, al the droue wente heedlynge in to the see. a1400Morte Arth. 3662 Brethly bessomes with byrre in berynes sailles. c1450Lonelich Grail xlv. 419 And to hire he ran with a ful gret ber. 1580Sidney Arcadia 54 Carried with the Beere of violent loue. 1609Holland Amm. Marcel. xxii. viii. 197 And giving way backward fetch their feese or beire againe. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Saulter, Il recule pour mieux saulter, He goes backe to take burre, or to leape the better. 1790Burns Election Ball. iii, Thus I break aff wi' a' my birr. 1867E. Waugh Owd Blanket ii. 37 in Lanc. Gloss., Thae'd no need to come i' sich a ber.
†b. A charge in battle; an attack, a fight. Obs.
c1340Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 290 I schal bide þe fyrst bur, as bare as I sitte. 1382Wyclif 2 Sam. xi. 23 We, the bure made [Vulg. impetu facto], pursueden hem into the ȝate. c1400Destr. Troy 11141 All the bent of þat birr blody beronnen. c1440Bone Flor. 659 Garcy..arayed hys batels in that bere.
c. A thrust, a violent push or blow; also fig.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. A. 176 Such a burre myȝt make myn herte blunt. c1400Destr. Troy 1244 A ȝonge knight..suet to þe Duke With a bir on þe brest, þat backeward he ȝode. 1830Galt Lawrie T. iii. xvi. (1849) 137 Dashed my head with such a bir against the branch of a prostrate tree.
d. Bodily force exerted against anything, might.
c1340Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2261 With alle þe bur in his body he ber it on lofte. 1382Wyclif James iii. 4 Shippes..ben born aboute of a litel gouernayle, where the bire [impetus] of a man dressinge shal wole. 1674Ray N.C. Wds. 5 Beer, Birre, Beare, force, might. With aw my beer (Chesh.), with all my force. 1823Galt Entail III. vii. 70 Ye need na mair waste your bir about it.
e. Force of pronunciation, energetic utterance.
1825Ld. Cockburn Mem. ii. 133 What the Scotch call the Birr..the emphatic energy of his pronunciation. 1827J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 118 Just such a voice..in its laigh notes there's a sort of birr..that betokens power. 1883W. Jolly J. Duncan xvii. 181 He told Charles the story with great birr.
3. An energetic whirring sound, such as that of a moor-fowl's flight, the running-down of a clock, or the vigorous trilling of the letter r.
1837R. Nicoll Poems (1842) 82 The birr o' Scotland's spinnin'-wheel. 1856Strong Glasgow & Clubs 207 Never did a Parisian badaud rattle the R with greater birr. 1876Smiles Sc. Natur. viii. (ed. 4) 136 The birr of the moorcock and the scream of the merlin.
▪ II. birr, n.2|bɪr|
Pl. birr, birrs.
[ad. Amharic bərr. Earlier used of various foreign silver coins, esp. dollars.]
The unit of currency in Ethiopia, consisting of 100 cents, which replaced the Ethiopian dollar in 1976; a note or coin of this value.
1976Times 23 Sept. 6/1 Ethiopia is to introduce a new currency from October 14. The Ethiopian dollar will be replaced by the birr, with the same exchange rate in the international market. 1977Statesman's Year-Bk. 1977–78 916 The Ethiopian birr..is based on 5.52 grains of fine gold. 1984Daily Tel. 24 Nov. 16/4 The birr is linked to the dollar. 1991R. Waldrop tr. Borer's Rimbaud in Abyssinia i. 22, I don't have any Ethiopian birrs yet, and charity seems suddenly an odious Western idea.
▪ III. birr, v.|bərr|
[f. prec.]
intr. To emit a whirring noise; to move rapidly with such a noise. Hence ˈbirring ppl. a.
1513Douglas æneis ix. ix. 134 Ane gret staf slung, byrrand wyth felloun wecht. 1786Burns Tam Samson's El. viii, Rejoice ye birring paitricks a'. 1791A. Wilson Laurel Disp. Poet. Wks. 125 The lasses' wheels, thrang birring round the ingle. 1802A. Campbell in Tales Borders (1863) I. 157 They were both seated in the gig, and birring it on merrily towards Carlisle. |