Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
adjective
- having burls that produce a distorted grain: burled lumber.
noun
- a small knot or lump in wool, thread, or cloth.
- a dome-shaped growth on the trunk of a tree; a wartlike structure sometimes 2 feet (0.6 meters) across and 1 foot (0.3 meters) or more in height, sliced to make veneer.
verb (used with object)
- to remove burls from (cloth) in finishing.
noun
- a small knot or lump in wool
- a roundish warty outgrowth from the trunk, roots, or branches of certain trees
verb
- (tr) to remove the burls from (cloth)
noun informal
- Scot, Australian and NZ an attempt; try (esp in the phrase give it a burl)
- Australian and NZ a ride in a car
“small knot in wool or cloth,” mid-15c., from Old French bourle “tuft of wool,” which perhaps is related to the root of bur, or from Vulgar Latin *burrula “small flock of wool,” from Late Latin burra “wool.”
- A large, rounded outgrowth on the trunk or branch of a tree. Burls develop from one or more twig buds whose cells continue to multiply but never differentiate so that the twig can elongate into a limb. Burls do not usually cause harm to trees.