Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A lane or narrow road.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Ireland A narrow, frequently unpaved, rural
road in Ireland.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A little further on, still to the right of the road, branched off suddenly a narrow bridle-path, or "boreen," as it is called in this part of the country.
Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. Bernard H. Becker
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It is true that when one has driven up the private road, be the same a mere "boreen" or a "shplendid avenue," the bell is found to be broken, the knocker wrenched off, the blinds hauled up awry, and the servants hard to be got at; but the householder is prosperous nevertheless.
Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. Bernard H. Becker
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It was my car-driver, a teetotaller, opined on this "boreen," that the irreconcilable tenant, one Thomas Browne, dwelt.
Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. Bernard H. Becker
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A Kerry man's boat is a ship, his cabin is a house, his shrubs are trees, his "boreen" is an avenue, and, as a native bard declares, "all his hens are paycocks."
Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. Bernard H. Becker
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"boreen," and concluded that, as it was nearly impassable, it must lead to the home of the Irreconcilable.
Disturbed Ireland Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. Bernard H. Becker
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It resembles our little boreen, down to hedgerows of flowering whitethorn and grass growing in the middle of the road.
Out of Ireland (3) 2009
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As you wandered down the boreen where the leprechaun was seen,
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By this time night had completely fallen, and in going down a dark boreen she managed to escape from her companions altogether.
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A party of five people -- the husbands, the son of one of them, and the two women came along the boreen, guided by the dim light of the farthing dip which is the only light the Irish farmer has yet been able to use.
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Flynn's house, the dog leading the pack by not fifty yards, when I saw him cut across a field to the left, while the hounds tumbled into a little boreen that runs up from the railway-station and went streaking down it singing out as if they were on a breast-high scent and in view.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-02-04 Various
chained_bear commented on the word boreen
A lane, a narrow road; also transf. an opening in a crowd. (Used only when Irish subjects are referred to.)
They're the things that you see when you wake up and scream
The cold things that follow you down the boreen
They live in the small ring of trees on the hill
Up at the top of the field...
--"Sit Down by the Fire," the Pogues, c. 1988 Shane Macgowan
February 7, 2007
sionnach commented on the word boreen
Etymologically, boreen is related to the Irish word for cow, "bo". Allegedly, in order to qualify for the designation, a pathway had to be wide enough to accommodate one cow standing perpendicular to the path's direction and another cow in the direction of motion. Roughly speaking it had to be one and a half cows' lengths across.
(I'm not actually making this up, though my recollection of the details may not be perfect)
February 23, 2007
bilby commented on the word boreen
"Then I heard her step that I knew so well on the boreen beside the house and I ran to the door, meaning to say I was sorry for the trouble we were giving her, but when I opened the door Denis called out her name in a loud voice, and the crying fit came on me, thinking how light-hearted we used to be together."
- Frank O'Connor, 'The Bridal Night'.
September 5, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word boreen
From Irish Irish gaelic bóithrín. Rhymes with colleen, as in the lovely song "Star of the County Down".
June 29, 2010