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.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 162/1. Fyyre, sharpe brusche (K. firre, whynne, P. fyir or qwynne), saliunca.
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.
1562. Bulleyn, Bk. Simples, 69 a. The Brome and the Whin or Furre bushe.
1606. Bryskett, Civ. Life, 22. He that shooteth at a starre, aimeth higher then he that shooteth at a furbush.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 123. We are guarding the place now with duck-guns, fur-bills, and otter spears to keep the fellows off, just as if Vermuyden and Readings times were back again.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 11. Whinchat (Pratincola rubetra) Furr chuck (Norfolk).
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.