• IPA: /fɜː(ɹ)z/

furze

1. A thorny evergreen shrub, with yellow flowers, Ulex gen. et spp., of which Ulex europaeus is particularly common upon the plains and hills of Great Britain and Ireland.
   • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i], page 1 ↗, column Gonz.}} Now would I giue a thouſand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground : Long heath, Browne firrs, any thing;{{...}:

     {w

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803 ↗, page 41 ↗:

     “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”

   • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter VIII, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: Published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, OCLC 19736994 ↗; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, OCLC 258624721 ↗, page 97 ↗:

     Clumps of withered grass stood out on the hill-top; the furze bushes were black, and now and then a black shiver crossed the snow as the wind drove flurries of frozen particles before it.

• gorse, whin

1. Surname