furze
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See also: Fürze
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- firrs (obsolete)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English firse, furs, from Old English fyrs (“furze, gorse, bramble”), from Old English fyres (“furze”), related to Old English fȳr (“fire”); otherwise of unknown origin.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
furze (countable and uncountable, plural furzes)
- A thorny evergreen shrub, with yellow flowers, Ulex gen. et spp., of which Ulex europaeus is particularly common upon the plains and hills of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], page 1:
- Gonz. Now would I giue a thouſand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground : Long heath, Browne firrs, any thing; […]
- 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803, page 41:
- “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
- 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter VIII, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, OCLC 19736994; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, OCLC 258624721, page 97:
- Clumps of withered grass stood out on the hill-top; the furze bushes were black, and now and then a black shiver crossed the snow as the wind drove flurries of frozen particles before it.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
Ulex gen. et spp., an evergreen shrub — see gorse
Further reading[edit]
German[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
furze
- inflection of furzen:
Polish[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
furze f
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
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- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
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- en:Genisteae tribe plants
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
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