dial. Also 5 fyre, firre (fyir, fyyre), 6 fyrre, furre, 9 furr. [See FURZE.] = FURZE. Chiefly in Comb., as fur-bill, -bush (-busk), -stack; fur chuck, the bird furze-chat.

1

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 162/1. Fyyre, sharpe brusche (K. firre, whynne, P. fyir or qwynne), saliunca.

2

c. 1540.  R. Morice, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 24. A gentilman … toke a fyrre bushe on … a pitche-fork, and being all sett on fyer thruste it into his moth.

3

1562.  Bulleyn, Bk. Simples, 69 a. The Brome and the Whin or Furre bushe.

4

1606.  Bryskett, Civ. Life, 22. He that shooteth at a starre, aimeth higher then he that shooteth at a furbush.

5

1870.  E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 12–3. We are guarding the place now with duck-guns, fur-bills, and otter spears to keep the fellows off, just as if Vermuyden and Reading’s times were back again.

6

1885.  Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 11. Whinchat (Pratincola rubetra) … Furr chuck (Norfolk).

7

1889.  N. W. Linc. Gloss., Fur-bill, a bill-hook: perhaps a furze-bill. Fur-busk, a bush of gorse. Fur-stack, a stack ofgorse.

8