Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🪓 A rough edge 🌱 A prickly seed 🛠️ A cutting tool 🪓 To smooth edges 🐝 To buzz
burr

burr

7 7.9
A rough edge left on material after cutting or drilling
  • noun
  • /bɜr/
  • Specialized
translation icon : rebaba
  • ECG can machine very smooth edges without the burrs caused by mechanical grinding tools, which require further machining.

Examples

  • "Oh, aye?" said Brianna sweetly, in a perfect imitation of his own slight Scots burr.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • And it is absolutely mission critical that this has no burrs and is clean AF.

  • Before assembling the parts, it is essential to file down any burrs left from the cutting process.

  • The technician carefully examined the metal piece to identify and remove any burrs that could affect its fit.

  • Using a small file, he smoothed the edges to eliminate any burrs formed during machining.

Idioms

a burr in someone's saddle
  • Archaic
8.6

A small problem that keeps annoying someone

Compounds

burr drill
  • Specialized
7.7

A small fast drill dentists use to cut and shape teeth

burr marigold
9.2

A plant with yellow flowers and prickly seeds that stick to fur or clothing

cockle-burr
  • US
9.7

A prickly plant with small spiny balls that stick to clothes or animal fur

How Rough

burr
  • Specialized
7 7.9

Surface Forms

burr singular
burrs plural

Etymology

Burr originally named a small, rough or 'prickly seed' that sticks to clothes and fur, and people later used the same word for the rough edge left on metal because it looks like that little seed. So a burr is the small, unwanted rough piece left after cutting or drilling.