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byre. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
byre, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
byre in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
byre you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English bire, bier, byr, from Old English bȳre.
Pronunciation
Noun
byre (plural byres)
- (chiefly British) A barn, especially one used for keeping cattle in.
1935, T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, Part II:It was here in the kitchen, in the passage,
In the mews in the harn in the byre in the market-place [...]
1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:’Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’
- 1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust, page 9 (2001 Perennial Edition):
- The visitors came up the narrow road through the forest from the south; they filled the spare-rooms, they bunked out in cow byres and barns.
Synonyms
Coordinate terms
Translations
a barn, especially one used for keeping cattle
Anagrams
Old English
Etymology 1
From Proto-West Germanic *burī (early *burijaz), from Proto-Germanic *buriz (“son”).
Pronunciation
Noun
byre m (nominative plural byras or byre)
- child, son, descendant; young man, youth
Declension
Declension of byre (strong i-stem)
Etymology 2
From Proto-Germanic *buriz (“hill, elevation”).
Pronunciation
Noun
byre m (nominative plural byras or byre)
- mound
Etymology 3
From Proto-Germanic *buriz (“favourable wind”).
Pronunciation
Noun
byre m (nominative plural byras or byre)
- strong wind, storm
Descendants
Etymology 4
From Proto-Germanic *burjaz (“opportunity”), related to Old English byrian (“to come up, occur”).
Pronunciation
Noun
byre m (nominative plural byras or byre)
- time, opportunity; occurrence
Derived terms
Etymology 5
Probably related to Old English būr. Perhaps identical to the word for a farm or dwelling in German -büren, Dutch -buren.
Pronunciation
Noun
bȳre n (nominative plural bȳru)
- stall, shed, hut
Derived terms
- cūbȳre m (“cow-byre, cow-shed”)
Descendants
Scots
Etymology
From Old English bȳre, but possibly influenced in usage by Gaelic "bò" meaning a cow.
Noun
byre (plural byres)
- A cattle shed or outhouse
Derived terms