BURR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Burr mean? 

• BURR (noun)
  The noun BURR has 5 senses:

1. seed vessel having hooks or prickles

2. rough projection left on a workpiece after drilling or cutting

3. United States politician who served as vice president under Jefferson; he mortally wounded his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel and fled south (1756-1836)

4. rotary file for smoothing rough edges left on a workpiece

5. small bit used in dentistry or surgery

  Familiarity information: BURR used as a noun is common.

• BURR (verb)
  The verb BURR has 1 sense:

1. remove the burrs from

  Familiarity information: BURR used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BURR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Seed vessel having hooks or prickles

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

bur; burr

Hypernyms ("burr" is a kind of...):

pericarp; seed vessel (the ripened and variously modified walls of a plant ovary)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "burr"):

beggar-ticks; Spanish needles (the seed of bur marigolds)

Derivation:

burr (remove the burrs from)

burry (having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Rough projection left on a workpiece after drilling or cutting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("burr" is a kind of...):

projection (any structure that branches out from a central support)

Sense 3

Meaning:

United States politician who served as vice president under Jefferson; he mortally wounded his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel and fled south (1756-1836)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Aaron Burr; Burr

Instance hypernyms:

pol; political leader; politician; politico (a person active in party politics)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Rotary file for smoothing rough edges left on a workpiece

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("burr" is a kind of...):

power tool (a tool driven by a motor)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Small bit used in dentistry or surgery

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bur; burr

Hypernyms ("burr" is a kind of...):

bit (the cutting part of a drill; usually pointed and threaded and is replaceable in a brace or bitstock or drill press)

Holonyms ("burr" is a part of...):

burr drill; dentist's drill (a high speed drill that dentists use to cut into teeth)

• BURR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they burr    ... he / she / it burrs   
Past simple: burred   
Past participle: burred   
-ing form: burring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove the burrs from

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

bur; burr

Hypernyms (to "burr" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

burr (seed vessel having hooks or prickles)

 Context examples 

A measurement of the Burr cells (erythrocytes characterized by the presence of small, blunt projections evenly distributed across the cell surface) in a biological specimen.

(Burr Cell Count, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

A measurement of the Burr cells (erythrocytes characterized by the presence of multiple small, sharp projections evenly distributed across the cell surface) in a biological specimen.

(Crenated Cell Measurement, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

Use of a cutting burr in a handheld instrument to remove diseased tooth structure and/or shape a tooth for retention of a replacement material.

(Dental Drilling, NCI Thesaurus)

“If you please, zir,” said he, with a slight west-country burr, “a twenty-voot ring is too small for a thirteen-stone man.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have one of my Baker Street boys mounting guard over him who would stick to him like a burr, go where he might.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The determination of the number of Burr cells present in a sample.

(Burr Cell Count, NCI Thesaurus)

Frost opens chestnut burrs, ma'am, and it takes a good shake to bring them down.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

After numbing the skin, a doctor removes the top layer of skin using sandpaper or a brush or burr (small file) that spins at a high speed.

(Dermabrasion, NCI Dictionary)

Love will make you show your heart one day, and then the rough burr will fall off.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Why, said a loud, consequential man from immediately behind me, speaking with a broad western burr, vrom what I’ve zeen of this young Gloucester lad, I doan’t think Harrison could have stood bevore him for ten rounds when he vas in his prime.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)