Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUR'REL, n.

A sort of pear, called also the red butter pear, from its smooth, delicious, soft pulp. – Philips.

BUR'REL-FLY, n.

The ox-fly, gad-bee, or breeze. – Johnson.

BUR'REL-SHOT, n. [Fr. bourreler, to torment, and shot.]

Small shot, nails, stones, pieces of old iron, &c., put into cases, to be discharged among enemies.

BURR'-MILL-STONE, n.

See Buhr-stone.

BUR'ROCK, n.

A small wier or dam where wheels are laid in a river, for catching fish. – Philips.

BUR'ROW, n.

A different orthography of Burgh, Borough, which see.

BUR'ROW, n. [Sax. byrgen, a sepulcher, byrian, to bury, or beorgan, to keep.]

A hollow place in the earth or in a warren, where small animals lodge, and sometimes deposit their provisions. Some animals excavate the earth, by scratching, and form these lodges.

BUR'ROW, v.i.

To lodge in a hole excavated in the earth, as coneys or rabbits. In a more general sense, to lodge in any deep or concealed place. The word seems to include the idea of excavating a hole for a lodge, as well as lodging in it; but the verb is not often used transitively, as to burrow the earth.

BUR'ROW-ING, ppr.

Lodging in a burrow.

BURR'-PUMP, or BILGE'-PUMP, n.

A pump, having a staff of 6, 7 or 8 feet long with a bar of wood to which the leather is nailed, which serves instead of a box. This staff is worked by men who pull it up and down, with a rope fastened to the middle of it. – Encyc.

BURS'AR, n. [See Burse.]

1. A treasurer, or cash-keeper, as the bursar of a college, or of a monastery; a purser.
2. A student to whom a stipend is paid out of a burse or fund appropriated for that purpose, as the exhibitioners sent to the universities in Scotland, by each presbytery. – Encyc. Johnson.

BURS'AR-SHIP, n.

The office of a bursar. – Hales.

BURS'A-RY, n.

1. The treasury of a college, or monastery.
2. In Scotland, an exhibition. – Encyc.

BURSE, n. [burs. Fr. bourse, a purse, the vesicle of the gall, the hull or skin of seeds, an exchange; D. beurs, a purse, an exchange, scrotum; Ger. börse, a purse, an exchange; D. börs, the same; It. borsa; Sp. and Port. bolsa, a purse or bag, r being changed into l.]

1. A public edifice in certain cities, for the meeting of merchants to consult on matters of trade and money, and to negotiate bills of exchange. This is the name used in many cities in Europe, but in England and America, such building is called an exchange. The new Burse in Paris is one of the most elegant buildings in the city.
2. In France, a fund or foundation for the maintenance of poor scholars in their studies. In the middle ages, it signified a little college, or a hall in a university. – Encyc.

BURST, n.

1. A sudden disruption; a violent rending; more appropriately, a sudden explosion or shooting forth; as, a burst of thunder; a burst of applause; a burst of passion.
2. A rupture, a hernia, or the unnatural protrusion of the contents of the abdomen.

BURST, or BURST'EN, pp. [or adj.]

Affected with a rupture or hernia.

BURST, pp.

Opened or rent asunder by violence.

BURST, v.i. [pret. and pp. burst. The old participle bursten is nearly obsolete. Sax. byrstan, burstan; D. barsten; G. bersten; Dan. brister; Sw. brista, to burst. The word bristle seems to belong to burst, denoting a shoot.]

1. To fly or break open with force, or with sudden violence; to suffer a violent disruption. The peculiar force of this word is, in expressing a sudden rupture, with violence, or expansion, or both. Hence it is generally used to signify the sudden rupture of a thing by internal force, and a liberation from confinement; as, to burst from a prison; the heart bursts with grief. – Milton.
2. To break away; to spring from; as, to burst from the arms. – Pope.
3. To come or fall upon suddenly or with violence; to rush upon unexpectedly; as, a sound bursts upon our ears.
4. To issue suddenly, or to come from a hidden or retired, place into more open view; as, a river bursts from a valley; a spring bursts from the earth.
5. To break forth into action suddenly; as, to burst into tears.
6. To break or rush in with violence; as, to burst into house or a room. It is often followed by an intensive particle; as, out, forth away, from, or asunder.

BURST, v.t.

To break or rend by force or violence; to open suddenly; as, to burst a chain or a door; to burst a cannon.

BURST'EN-NESS, n.

The state of having a rupture; the hernia.

BURST'ER, n.

One that bursts.

BURST'ING, ppr.

Rending or parting by violence; exploding.

BURST'-WORT, n.

The Herniaria, a plant said to be good against hernia or ruptures.

BURT, n.

A flat fish of the turbot kind. – Johnson.

BURTH'EN, n. [or v.]

See BURDEN.