cockle-burr

9.7

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

noun
/ˈkɑkəlˌbɜr/

: burr

Children often come home with cockle-burrs stuck to their clothes after playing in the fields.

Examples

The farmer cursed the stubborn cockle-burr plants taking over his pastures.
Removing cockle-burrs from a dog's fur can be a painful task.
The cockle-burr stuck to my pants as I walked through the field.
Many cockle-burrs are found in this area during the summer.
After playing in the tall grass, I found several cockle-burrs on my shirt.
The dog's fur was covered in cockle-burrs after he ran through the bushes.
As we walked through the meadow, I constantly had to pull off cockle-burrs from my trousers.

Synonyms

burr

vscockle-burr

3 7.5

A prickly seed head that sticks to fur and clothes

is a specific coarse Xanthium weed rather than any prickly seed vessel

cocklebur

vscockle-burr

1 9.6

A plant with prickly seed heads that stick to fur and clothing

is the same weed but described without mentioning medicinal or culinary use

cockle-bur

vscockle-burr

9.9

A coarse weed with spiny seeds that stick to animals or clothing

is the same plant but often spelled differently in other sources

cockleburr

vscockle-burr

9.9

A coarse weed with spiny seed heads that stick to fur or clothes

is the same plant but appears under alternate spellings or forms

Surface Forms

cockle-burr singular

cockle-burrs plural

Morphology

cockle-burr = cockle + burr (semi-transparent) = cockle + burr

The compound is built from two recognizable nouns, but the specific botanical sense ('a coarse weed with spiny burs') is a specialized name that learners may not infer from the parts alone.

Etymology

Cockle-burr combines cockle, a name for some small wild plants, and burr, meaning a 'prickly seed that sticks' to clothes or fur. So a cockle-burr is a rough weed whose burrs cling to animals and clothing.