Forms: 1 fyrs, 4–6 firse, (5 virse), 4, 6–7 furs(e, 5 fyrrys, 6 fyrs, 6–7 firr(e)s, firze, (6 fyrze), furres, 7–9 furz, 7–9 dial. fuz, 8 fuzz, 6– furze. Also pl. 4 firsen, fursyn, 5 fyrsyn, 6 fursen, 6–7, 9 dial. furzen, (7 -on), 9 dial. fuzzen. See also FUN sb.3 [OE. fyrs str. masc.; no connections are known; the Gr. πράσον, Lat. porrum, leek, might be cognate so far as the form is concerned, but the difference of sense is unfavorable to this supposition. The disyllabic forms fyrrys, firres, etc., seem to have been apprehended as plural, and a new sing. was formed from them: see FUR sb.3]
1. The popular name of Ulex europæus, a spiny evergreen shrub with yellow flowers, growing abundantly on waste lands throughout Europe, Also named gorse, whin; common, great or French furze. † Sometimes, a bush or piece of this.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxiii. Swa hwa swa wille sawan westmbære land atio ærest of þa þornas & þa fyrsas.
a. 1000. Ags. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 324. Ramnus, fyrs.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 195. All that herde … weschte that hit weore i-wipet with a wesp of firsen.
1382. Wyclif, Micah vii. 4. A palyure, that is, a sharp bushe, or a thistil or frijse [v. r. firse].
1436. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 498. Pasture, Wode, Hetthe, Virses, and Gorste.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 6 b. All the wode, brome, gorse, fyrs, braken.
1573. Tusser, Husb., liii. (1878), 119. With whinnes or with furzes thy houell renew.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 180.
| They my lowing follow’d, through | |
| Tooth’d briars, sharps firzes, pricking gosse, & thorns, | |
| Which entred their fraile shins. |
a. 1626. Breton, Daffodils & Primr. (Grosart), 23. Forrestes full of furres and brakes.
1647. Cowley, Mistress, Discovery, ii.
| The Lightning which tall Oakes oppose in vain, | |
| To strike sometimes does not disdain | |
| The humble Furzes of the Plain. |
a. 1701. Sedley, Virgil’s Past., Wks. 1722, I. 296. May I to thee more bitter seem than Rue, More course than Fuz.
1735. Somerville, The Chace, III. 42.
| Then to the Copse, | |
| Thick with entangling Grass, or prickly Furze | |
| With Silence lead the many-colour’d Hounds, | |
| In all their Beauty’s Pride. |
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 192. With blossom’d furze unprofitably gay.
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., IV. ii. A broad patch of green heath, covered with furz.
1887. Sir R. H. Roberts, In the Shires, i. 3. The hounds are making the furze crack and shake in their eager efforts.
b. transf. and fig.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., V. Wks. 1856, I. 60. Oh, to have a husband … with a bush of furs on the ridge of his chinne.
1705. Elstob, in Hearne, Collect., 30 Nov. (O. H. S.), I. 107. From Fuzz and Bramble to the downy beard He whisk’d them off.
2. In popular names of other plants, as Dwarf furze (Ulex nanus); Ground furze, the Restharrow (Ononis arvensis); Needle furze (Genista anglica).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. x. 669. This herbe is called … in Englishe Rest Harrow, Cammocke, Whyn, Pety Whyn, or ground Furze.
1650. Phytologia Brit., 45. Genistella … Needle Furze or Petty Whin. Ibid., Creeping Dwarfe Furze or Whins.
1738. C. Deering, Catal. Stirp., 89. Needle Furze.
3. attrib. and Comb.
a. chiefly attributive, as furze-bed, -brake, -cover, -croft, -cutter, -down, -faggot, -flower, -hill, -lea, -top, -toppings (pl.); furze-clad adj.
1644. Vicars, Jehovah-Jireh, 133. His *Furze-bed was the best bed that ever he lay on.
1711. Budgell, Spect., No. 116, ¶ 5. I saw a Hare pop out from a small *Furze-brake.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 38. Here all the higher sides of the hills, incapable for culture, are advantageously appropriated for furze-brakes, whilst the lower sides of such declivities are employed as orchard ground and well watered meadows.
1795–1814. Wordsw., Excurs., VIII. 370. Upon the skirts Of *furze-clad commons.
1795. Gentl. Mag., June, 462. The custom of setting fire to the *furze-covers on midsummer-day.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, I. 63. A green down stretches up to bright yellow *furze-crofts far aloft.
1882. Ouida, Maremma, I. 45. The pasture lands and marshes were desolate, and she met scarce anyone; here and there a *furze cutter or a ploughman with his oxen, that was all.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., I. v. 157. Flat and open *furze-downs.
c. 1555. in Strype, Cranmer, 392. One load of *Furs-Fagots.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 355. Laying at the bottom next the timbers that lye on the staddles, a range of furse-faggots, which perhaps prevent the ascent of mice and ratts better than the staddles themselves.
1793. Coleridge, Songs of Pixies, ii. We sip the *furze-flowers’ fragrant dews.
1800. Hurdis, Fav. Village, 174. How elegant yon *furze-hill clothed in gold.
1794. Act Inclosing S. Kelsey, 1. *Furze Leas, and Waste Grounds.
1859. W. S. Coleman, Woodlands (1866), 126. Small water-wheels that work a pair of wooden mallets, the action of which effectually bruizes the *Furze-tops intended for fodder.
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), II. xx. 346–7. A starveling Breton, who was often glad enough, ere he came to England, to rob his own ponies of their *furze-toppings, and boil them down for want of kale.
b. esp. in furze-bush, also (obs. and dial.) furzen bush.
1530. Palsgr., 220/2. Fyrsbusshe, jovmarin.
1600. Heywood, 1st Pt. Edw. IV., II. ii. So many men in the moon, And every one a furzen bush in his mouth.
1644. Vicars, Jehovah-Jireh, 133. Many other young Gentlemen … lay all that night … upon Furze-bushes on the ground.
1668. J. White, Rich Cab. (ed. 4), 51. If you will graft a white rose upon a Broom-stalk, or on a furzon bush.
1738. C. Deering, Catal. Stirp., 89. Genista spinosa minor … The lesser Furze Bush.
1882. Black, Shandon Bells, xxiii. Miss Patience asked me if I had combed it [my hair] with a furze-bush.
4. Special comb.: † furze cat, a name given to the hare; furze-huck dial., a heap or stack of furze; furze-owl, a cockchafer; furze-pig, the hedgehog.
a. 1325. Names of Hare, in Rel. Ant., I. 133. The *furse-cat.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xiii. The soft white mist came thicker around me, as the evening fell, and the peat-ricks here and there, and the *furze-hucks of the summer-time, were all out of shape in the twist of it.
1847–78. Halliwell, *Furze-owl, a cockchafer. Somerset.
1865. Cornh. Mag., July, 40. As in Gloucestershire, *‘furse-pig’ for hedgehog.
b. In popular names of various birds, as furze-chat, the whinchat (Pratincola rubetra); furze-chirper, -chucker, the mountain finch or brambling (Fringilla montifringilla); furze-hacker = furze-chat; furze- (dial. fuz-) kite (see quots.); furze-lark, the tit-lark (Anthus pratensis); furze-wren = FURZELING.
1843. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, I. 249. The Whinchat, or *Furzechat, is in its habits, and also the localities it frequents, very similar to the Stonechat, last described.
1847–78. Halliwell, *Furze-chirper, the mountain finch. It is also called the *furze-chucker.
1862. J. R. Wise, New Forest (1863), 270. The whinchat, known … from its cry, as the *‘furze hacker.’
1635. Brathwait, Arcad. Princesse, 237. Where choughs and *fuskites built their nest.
1880. W. Cornw. Gloss., Fuz’-kite, the ring-tailed kite.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Vuz-kite, a kestrel.
a. 1854. Clare, MS. Poems, in Miss Baker, Northants. Gloss., I wept to see the hawk severe Murder the *furze-lark whistling nigh.
1839–43. Yarrell, Hist. Birds, I. 313. The *Furze Wren.
Hence Furzed a. [-ED2], made or covered with furze. Also Furzeling [-LING], the Dartford Warbler (Melizophilus undatus).
1855. Ogilvie, Supp., Furze-ling, Furze-wren. Melizophilus provincialis, a small bird found in several of the southern counties of England.
1873. Daily News, 21 May, 5/5. There are a ditch, a bank with a drop, a kind of furzed fence, and a low wall of turf and stones.
1885. W. Allingham, Flower Pieces (1887), 14. Harbours the wren, the furzeling, and the coney.
