Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Scots Birch.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A birch tree.
- n. A small European minnow (Leuciscus phoxinus).
- n. Alternative spelling of berk.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A birch tree.
- n. A small European minnow (Leuciscus phoxinus).
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Northern English and Scotch form of birch.
- To give a tart answer; converse in a sharp and cutting way.
Etymologies
Examples
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I've often wondered why it is pronounced "birk" when it derives from berkeley hoon.
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I spent ten years at the part-time working, child-caring, birk-wearing partner type.
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I won't even make you get rid of the birk but only one?
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I was at the birk store with a friend who was trying them on.
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Sons o birk an pine an rowan, Jocks an Ivans by the score
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The angelica is like the green birk of that superb fragment, the ballad of the Wife of Usher's Well -- a little more frankly heathen, of course --
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In Scotland the channering worm doth chide even the souls that come from where, "beside the gate of Paradise, the birk grows fair enough."
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy"
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'Twas when the wan leaf frae the birk-tree was fa'in ', vol. ii.,
The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume VI The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century
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Oh, hast thou forgotten the birk-tree's shade, vol. iv.,
The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume VI The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century
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Sweet smells the birk, green grows, green grows the grass,
hernesheir commented on the word birk
A lovely Scottish strathspey called "The Birks of Invermay" was published in William Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius in 1733. The charming melody honors Invermay House and Estate on the northern edge of the Ochil Hills of central Perth and Kinross.
The tune will always be associated with the tragic story of 26 year-old Captain Willie Leslie, the son of the Earl of Leven and of one of Scotland's great military families, who was killed on 3 January 1777 at the Battle of Princeton, during the American Revolution.
Leslie was buried in Pluckemin, NJ by Generals Mifflin and Washington with full military honors. The gravestone was erected after the war by his American family friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush. Rush said that upon learning of his friend's death he wept for the first time at a victory of his own side over British troops.
May 24, 2010