Also 7, 9 burine. [a. Fr. burin, cogn. w. It. bolino, borino, Sp. and Pg. buril, OSp. boril, perh. f. OHG. bora boring-tool. The It. form bolino was occas. used in 17th c.]
1. A graver; the tool used by an engraver on copper; also attrib.
1662. Evelyn, Chalcogr. (1769), 57. [The utmost efforts and excellency of the bolino]. Ibid., xi. (1805), 262. Whither wrought with the burin … or with aqua fortis.
1674. Govt. Tongue, vii. § 2. 140. Like the gravers burine upon copper.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 227. Several of his designs … were afterwards retouched with the burin by his disciple.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., III. X. vi. 266. The Text itself engraved; all by the exquisite burin of Pine.
1880. Hamerton, in Daily News, 13 April, 3/6. The most eminent painters of the present day consider etchings at least equal to burin engravings…. A burin engraver can only plod patiently to a foreseen result.
b. The style or manner of using the graver.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 507. ’Tis a fine specimen of Loggan’s bold burin.
2. A triangular tool used by marble-workers.
Hence Burinist, an engraver.
[1796. Pegge, Anonym. (1809), 187. We … might not improperly, as we use a tool called a burin, be called Burinators, and the Art, Burining.]
1841. For. Q. Rev., XXVI. 329 (L.). Many expert burinists.
1882. American, V. 124/1. All the great original burinists did not invent, but reproduced with the burin.
