birse

The boxes might well surprise Sandy, if we may draw any conclusions from the fact that the sole implement of personal adornment which he possessed was two inches of a broken comb, for which he had to search when he happened to want it, in the drawer of his stool, among awls, lumps of rosin for his violin, masses of the same substance wrought into shoemaker's wax for his ends, and packets of boar's bristles, commonly called birse, for the same.

Robert Falconer George MacDonald 1864

He showed his teeth and raised his "birse," and barked in a most audacious manner, till the French kennel answered the challenge; an old dog in Egypt cocked his tail at the same time, and the world began to be afraid that hydrophobia would be universal.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. Various

"birse" about his face, and dark-blue western eyes -- the eyes of the island MacBrydes who had built ships to ride the sea, and whose younger branches had captained and made fortunes out of far sea adventuring.

Patsy 1887

Ye can birse (push) in fine, but it wud beat me to get by the door.

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush Ian Maclaren 1878

Now, if he was taking it up in this way, he wad set up the tother's birse, and maybe do mair ill nor gude --- he's done that twice or thrice about thae mine-warks; ye wad thought Sir Arthur had a pleasure in gaun on wi 'them the deeper, the mair he was warned against it by

The Antiquary 1845

The souter gae the sow a kiss; "grumph," quo 'she, "it's for a birse."

The Proverbs of Scotland Alexander Hislop 1836

But I am still puzzled to dispose of the birse [28] in a {p. 089} becoming manner.

Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10) 1824

I had mostly forgot to speak of the birse for cleaning out the pan, and the piker for clearing the motion-hole.

The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith David Macbeth Moir 1824

James Batter's birse had been so fiercely put up, and no wonder, that it was not so easily sleeked down; so, for a while he looked unco glum, till

The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith David Macbeth Moir 1824

So I thought of putting the birse into the lady's other hand; but, alas, it looked so precisely like the rod of chastisement uplifted over the poor child, that I laughed at the drawing for half an hour.

Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10) 1824