Forms: 1 byrst, 1–4 berst, birst, 5 byrst, 3– burst. [In sense 1 repr. OE. byrst (berst) = OHG. brust:—OTeut. *brusti-z, f. pa. pple. stem of brestan to BURST. This seems to have become obs. about the middle of 14th c.; the modern sb. was apparently f. the verb. in 16th c. Cf. the parallel BREST, BRIST.]
† 1. Damage, injury, harm; loss. Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Ex. xxii. 6. Ȝilde þone byrst þe þæt fyr ontende.
c. 1205. Lay., 1347. Brutus at bræc al buten burstan [c. 1275 harme]. Ibid., 1610. Þe king Goffar iseih his burst [c. 1275 lure].
c. 1300. in Wright, Lyric P., iv. 24. That burst shal bete for hem bo.
c. 1320. Syr Bevis, 1929. A-dede hire ete al ther ferst That she ne dede him no berst.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 330. Þen in all þe toþer worldelyche burste.
c. 1430. How Gd. Wijf tauȝte hir Douȝtir, in Babees Bk. (1868), 45. The more nede hyt make or the grettyr byrst.
II. Senses formed anew from the verb.
2. An act of bursting; the result of this action.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 106. The snatches in his voice And bursts of speaking were as his.
1836. Macgillivray, Humboldt’s Trav., iii. 52. The Peak of Teneriffe exhibited a lateral burst, preceded by tremendous earthquakes.
1885. G. Meredith, Diana of Crossw., I. iv. 107. When beech-buds were near the burst.
b. fig. Burst-up: the failure, collapse, of an organization or scheme.
1879. Daily News, 22 Sept., 2/1. A speedy burst-up of the whole agricultural system.
3. A sudden and violent issuing forth. Chiefly of light and sounds. So also a burst of flame, a burst of fish (in local use).
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. i. 311. We heard a hollow burst of bellowing Like Buls.
1671. Milton, Samson, 1651. Down they came, and drew The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder, Upon the heads of all.
1816. Southey, Lay of Laur., Dream, vi. Burst after burst the innocuous thunders brake.
1854. Brewster, More Worlds, ii. 17. The gloomy landscape whose varied beauties a burst of sun-light has revealed.
1857. [H. N. Humphreys], in National Mag., II. 197/1. Terminating in a glorious burst of acclamatory harmony.
b. A sudden opening on the view.
1798. Coleridge, Fears in Solit., 215. This burst of prospect.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park, I. viii. 169 (D.). Here is a fine burst of country.
1875. Browning, Inn Album, 4. Not so the burst of landscape surging in.
4. An explosion, eruption, outbreak.
1649. Milton, Eikon., Wks. 1738, I. 403. He … kept them up, the only Army in his three Kingdoms, till the very burst of that Rebellion.
1704. Addison, Italy, 248–9 (J.).
| Imprison’d Fires, in the close Dungeons pent, | |
| Roar to get loose, and struggle for a Vent, | |
| Eating their Way, and undermining all, | |
| ’Till with a mighty Burst whole Mountains fall. |
1790. Wedgwood, in Phil. Trans., LXXX. 309. As often as the heat was at or near the boiling point of the acid, frequent … bursts or explosions happened.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Nov., 12/1. Out of 8,245 shells and shrapnel fired with this fuze between 1863 and 1869, there were 128 premature bursts = 1.5 per cent.
5. A vehement outbreak (of emotion or its expression).
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 141, ¶ 10. A mistake which had given rise to a burst of merriment.
1775. Burke, Amer. Tax., Wks. II. 408. From the whole of that grave multitude there arose an involuntary burst of gratitude and transport.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, V. xliv. 370. A burst of ill humour, which it would have been wiser to suppress.
Mod. The statement was received with a burst of laughter.
6. A great and sudden exertion of activity, a vigorous display of energy; a ‘spurt.’ Phrase, At a (one) burst.
1862. Abp. Trench, Eng. Past & Pr., III. 97. With Chaucer English literature had made a burst, which it was not able to maintain.
1865. M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., I. (1875), 8. The burst of creative activity in our literature.
1876. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 5 (1882), 393. The great poetic burst for which this intellectual advance was paving the way.
b. Horsemanship. A hard run, a gallop without a check.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. iv. So shrewdly, on the mountainside, Had the bold burst their metal tried.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. iv. (1876), 29. During a burst over the Downs after a hare.
1868. R. Eg.-Warburton, Hunt. Songs, lvi. (1883), 155. How keen their emulation in the bustle of the burst, When side by side the foremost ride.
7. colloq. A prolonged bout of drunkenness, a ‘spree.’ Also a big feed, a ‘blow out.’
1881. Mrs. Praed, Policy & Pass., I. 288. When … his men go on the burst.
1881. Cheq. Career, 356. Nothing does me like a good week’s ‘burst.’
