Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BIRSIE, BIRZY, BIRS(E)Y, Birsi, Bissy, Birssy, adj. Gen.Sc. [′brs, ′bʌrs, ′bɪs]

1. Bristly; hairy.Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) II. 42:
The bauld birsy Bair your Frien'.Sh. 1914 Angus Gl.:
Birsi, having a very rough exterior, very shaggy.ne.Sc. 1836 J. Grant Tales of the Glens (1869) 53:
I saw it was a birsy thing like a hedgehog.Edb. 1839 T. T. Stoddart Songs and Poems 55:
So gin ye tak' an angler's word, Ye'd through the whuns an' ower the brae, An' work awa wi' cunnin' hand Yer birzy hackles black and reid.Rnf. 1806 R. Tannahill Poems (1876) 121:
But lest the critic's birsie besom, Soop aff this cant of egotism, I'll sidelins hint — na, bauldly tell, I whyles think something o mysel.Kcb. 1851 A. Young in Vale of Urr Verses (MS. collection) II. 47:
His birsey hair smoothed gently doon.

2. Hot-tempered; passionate.Sc. 1836 Sc. Monthly Mag. (July) 183:
Obliged to confess, when the wee wicked reform cobbler was pitching it into him, the creature was a birsie bodie.Sc. 1896 A. Cheviot Proverbs 155:
He's a birsie [passionate] man.Sc. 1928 J. G. Horne A Lan'wart Loon 13:
An' kinna birsie at the lunder, Tam leuch an' reeng'd aroon' for plunder.Ork. 1929 Marw.:
Bissy, irascible, ill-tempered.Edb. 1878 (3rd ed.) J. Smith Peggy Pinkerton's Recollections 33:
The butler, a wee fat birsy body, but no bad-hearted, ordered him to desist.e.Dmf. 1912 J. and R. Hyslop Langholm as it was 724:
Calling him a “birsie body.”

3. Keen, sharp; applied to the weather (Fif. 1958).n.Sc. 1808 Jam.:
“A birssy day,” a cold bleak day.

4. Difficult.Edb. 1898 J. Baillie Walter Crighton 169:
Him try it! . . . it wad be far ower birsy for him.