birkie
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- noun A man, especially one who is spirited and energetic.
- adjective Lively; spirited; cocky.
Examples
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A lord, no doubt, may be a "birkie" and a "coof," but may not a ploughman be so too?
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But this young birkie here, that ye are hounding the fastest way to the gallows -- tell me, will all his stage-plays and his poetries, or your broad oaths and drawn dirks tell him where Rashleigh Osbaldistone is?
Red Cap Tales Stolen from the Treasure Chest of the Wizard of the North
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And maybe that's the reason every silly birkie thinks he has the right to cast up to me that I am an auld maid.
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She was nine-and-twenty, and a birkie woman of nine-and-twenty can make a good husband out of very unpromising material.
Note
The word 'birkie' may be akin to Middle English 'berken' (to bark), from Old English 'beorcan'.
