furze

See also: Fürze

English

Etymology

From Old English fyrs (“furze, gorse, bramble”), from Old English fyres (“furze”), related to Old English fȳr (“fire”); otherwise of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɜː(ɹ)z/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)z

Noun

furze (plural furzes)

1. A thorny evergreen shrub (Ulex europaeus), with yellow flowers, very common upon the plains and hills of Great Britain and Ireland.
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 29686887 , chapter IV:

     “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, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Vintage Classics, paperback edition, p.93:

     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

• gorse, whin

Derived terms

• dwarf furze (Ulex nanus)

Translations

Ulex europaeus, an evergreen shrub

• Bulgarian: прещип m (preštip)
• French: ajoncs (fr) m pl
• Galician: toxo (gl) m pl

• Irish: aiteann m, f, aiteannach f (collective)
• Portuguese: tojo (pt) m
• Russian: дро́к (ru) m (drók), утёсник (utjósnik)

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German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʊʁtsə/, [fʊɐ̯tsə]

Verb

furze

1. First-person singular present of furzen.
2. First-person singular subjunctive I of furzen.
3. Third-person singular subjunctive I of furzen.
4. Imperative singular of furzen.