Forms: 4 borwȝ, 4–6 borow, 6 boroughe, 6–7 borough, burrowe, bury, 7 burrough(e, 7– burrow, (9 ? dial. bury, burry). See also BERRY sb.3 [Of somewhat obscure origin. The forms are identical with those of BOROUGH, of which the word is commonly regarded as a variant; but the sense is not known to have belonged to OE. burh, ON. borg, or to the parallel form in any Teut. lang. Possibly it may be a special use of BOROUGH 1, stronghold; or else a derivative (unrecorded in OE. and ON.) of *burg- ablaut-stem of OTeut. *bergan to shelter, protect; cf. BURY v., BURIELS. The forms bury, BERRY sb.3 may perhaps be connected with BERGH sb. protection, shelter.]
1. A hole or excavation made in the ground for a dwelling-place by rabbits, foxes and the like.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 9. By-side þe borwȝ þere þe barn was inne.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. viii. 20. Foxis han dichis, or borowis, and briddis of the eir han nestis.
1538. Leland, Itin., V. 59. There is nothing now but a Fox borow.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., xi. Rabettes, in or vpon any bury.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 504. The wood Torteise … maketh her borough in the woods.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 173. Leaving places on the sides for the Coneys to draw and make their Stops or Buries.
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, 35. The conies which the rain had driven from their burrows.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ella of Gar., iii. 37. To hunt the puffins out of their burrows in the rock.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, iii. 40. The burrows … made by Crustaceans.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 38. In heavy rain … they [rabbits] generally remain within their buries.
† b. A burrowing; any small tubular excavation, or underground passage. Obs.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 607. The burroughes [of the internal ear] in their inward superficies are inuested with a very soft and fine membrane.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 82. Fiery Mines or Burroughs.
2. transf. and fig. A secluded or small hole-like dwelling-place, or place of retreat; a ‘hole.’
1650. Weldon, Crt. Jas. I. (1651), 44. This fellow knew his Burrough well enough.
1790. Boswell, Johnson (1816), III. 409. The chief advantage of London is, that a man is always so near his burrow.
1835. Sir J. Ross, N.-W. Pass., xxix. 408. A fresh breeze made our burrow colder than was agreeable.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 130. Within a few miles of Dublin, the traveller … saw … the miserable burrows out of which squalid … barbarians stared wildly.
3. Comb., as † burrow-headed a., ? given to searching things out, inquisitive, curious (obs.).
1650. B., Discolliminium, 17. Over-brain’d Burrow-headed Men, restlesse in studying new things.
