birle

birle verb: to pour a drink (for).

Verb

birle (third-person singular simple present birles, present participle birling, simple past and past participle birled)

(Scotland, obsolete) To pour a drink (for).
- c.1882-1898, Francis James Child (collector and editor), Child's Ballads, Number 68: "Young Hunting",
  She has birld in him Young Hunting / The good ale and the beer, / Till he was as fou drunken / As any wild-wood steer.
(Scotland, obsolete) To drink deeply or excessively; carouse.
- c.1882-1898, Francis James Child (collector and editor), Child's Ballads, Number 73: "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet",
  They birled, they birled at Annies wake / The white bread and the wine, / And ere the morn at that same time / At his they birled the same.

Forms of birle

third-person singular present	birles
present participle	birling
past participle	birled
past	birled
alternative form	birl
alternative form	byrl

Origin of birle

From Middle English birlen, from Old English byrelian (“to give or serve a drink to”), from byrele (“cupbearer, steward, butler”), from Proto-Germanic *burilijaz (“carrier, manservant”), from *burjô (“descendant, son”), from *beraną (“to bear, carry”). Related to Old English byre (“son, offspring, youth”). More at bear.

Words formed from birle

birler

Questions about birle

What does birle mean?: Birle means to pour a drink (for).
What part of speech is birle?: Birle is a verb.
What is the past tense of birle?: The past tense of birle is birled.

Words near birle in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: birle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “birle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/birle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.