Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A whirring sound.
  • noun Strong forward momentum; driving force.
  • intransitive verb To make a whirring sound.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make a whirring noise; make a noise like that of revolving wheels, or of millstones at work.
  • noun A whirring noise.
  • noun Strong trilling pronunciation. See bur.
  • noun A strong wind.
  • noun The force of the wind; impetus; momentum.
  • noun A thrust or push.
  • noun Force; vigor; energy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A whirring sound, as of a spinning wheel.
  • noun A rush or impetus; force.
  • intransitive verb To make, or move with, a whirring noise, as of wheels in motion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The currency of Ethiopia, divided into 100 santims
  • noun force, vigor, energy
  • noun a strong wind.
  • noun the force of the wind; rush, impetus, momentum, driving force
  • noun a thrust or push
  • noun a whirring noise
  • noun a strong trilling pronunciation
  • verb To make a whirring noise; make a noise like that of revolving wheels, or of millstones at work.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a soft swishing sound
  • noun sound of something in rapid motion
  • noun the basic unit of money in Ethiopia; equal to 100 cents

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bir, favorable wind, from Old Norse byrr; see bher- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Amharic bərr, from brr, to be white.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Amharic bir ("silver")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English bir ("favorable or strong wind; assault, blow strike, violence, fury; strength"), from Old English byre ("strong wind, storm"); cognate with Icelandic byrr ("sailing winds"), Albanian borë ("snow") and Latin borea ("North wind").

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