a. arch. Forms: 4 borel(l, burel(l, 5 borelle, 6 borrell, Sc. burell, burrell, 7–9 borrel, borel. [Conjectured to be an attrib. use of borel, BUREL sb. ‘coarse clothing’; the adj. and the sb. appear in the same forms in 14th c., but in Eng. writers from Caxton onwards the adj. is borrel, borel, while the sb. is regularly burrel, burel. Sense 2 seems to be a development of 1, which appears much earlier. See BOROWE.]
† 1. Belonging to the laity. Obs. (or arch.)
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 286. And þanne shal borel clerkes ben abasched, to blame ȝow or to greue.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. T., 164. And moore we seen of cristes secree thynges Than burel [so in 4 MSS., Heng. burell, Corpus borell, Harl. borel] folk al though they weren kynges.
a. 1420. Occleve, De Reg. Princ., 52. Some of hem [priests] ben as borelle folkes be.
c. 1575. Gascoigne, Fruites Warre, xxviii. Bycause they cover more than borrell men.
1860. Warter, Sea-board & D., II. 473. As with the lay and borrel man, so too with Bishop, Priest, or Deacon.
2. Unlearned, rude; rough. arch. (In quot. 1513 said of spears; cf. BOISTOUS, BOISTEROUS.)
1513. Douglas, Æneis, Prol. 48. Weill ma I schaw my burell busteous thocht. Ibid., VII. xii. 56. Bayr in thair handis lance stavis and burrell speris.
1572. Gascoigne, Flowers, Wks. (1587), 111. My borrell braine is all too blount To give a gesse.
1625. Gill, Sacr. Philos., I. 63. His words seeme borrel and rude.
1727. Cowell’s Law Dict., s.v. Bordel, Borel-folkes, drunkards, and epicures, which the Scotch now call buriel-folk.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, v. A coarse, ignorant, borrel man like me.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 318. Lo, such are borel folk.
