furze
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]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]- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)z
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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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; […]
- 1771–1790, Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography [Part 1]”, in John Bigelow, editor, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., published 1868, →OCLC, page 158:
- At length, receiving his quarterly allowance of fifteen guineas, instead of discharging his debts he walk'd out of town, hid his gown in a furze bush, and footed it to London, […]
- 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, 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; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, 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
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English 1-syllable words
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- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)z
- Rhymes:English/ɜː(ɹ)z/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Genisteae tribe plants
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German terms with audio pronunciation
- German non-lemma forms
- German verb forms
- Polish 2-syllable words
- Polish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Polish/uʐɛ
- Rhymes:Polish/uʐɛ/2 syllables
- Polish non-lemma forms
- Polish noun forms