Chapter Burchardise to Busby of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Burlaw or Byrlaw. A sort of Lynchlaw in the rural districts of Scotland. The inhabitants of a district used to make certain laws for their own observance, and appoint one of their neighbours, called the Burlaw-man, to carry out the pains and penalties. The word is a corrupt form of byr-law, byr=a burgh, common in such names as Derby, the burgh on the Derwent; Grimsby (q.v.), Grims-town.

Burlesque Father of burlesque poetry. Hipponax of Ephesus. (Sixth century B.C.)

Burlond A giant whose legs Sir Tryamour cut off. (Romance of Sir Tryamour.)

Burn His money burns a hole in his pocket. He cannot keep it in his pocket, or forbear spending it.
   To burn one's boats. To cut oneself off from all means or hope of retreat. The allusion is to Julius Caesar and other generals, who burned their boats or ships when they invaded a foreign country, in order that their soldiers might feel that they must either conquer the country or die, as retreat would be impossible.
    To burn one's fingers. To suffer loss by speculation or interference. The allusion is to taking chestnuts from the fire.

“He has been bolstering up these rotten iron-works. I told him he would burn his fingers.”- Mrs. Lynn Linton.

   You cannot burn the candle at both ends. You cannot do two opposite things at one and the same time; you cannot exhaust your energies in one direction, and yet reserve them unimpaired for something else. If you go to bed late you cannot get up early. You cannot eat your cake and have it too. You cannot serve God and Mammon. You cannot serve two masters. Poursuis deux lièvres, et les manques. (La Fontaine.) Simul sorbere ac flare non possum.
   We burn daylight. We waste time in talk instead of action. (Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1.)

Burn a stream. A variant of bourn (Anglo-Saxon, burne, a brook, as in Winterbourne, Burnham, Swinburn, etc.).

Burning Crown (A). A crown of red-hot iron set on the head of regicides.

“He was adjudged
To have his head seared with a burning crown.”
Tragedy of Hoffmann. (1631.)

Burnt The burnt child dreads the fire. Once caught, twice shy. “What! wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?”

Burnt Candlemas Day Feb. 2, 1355-6, when Edward III. marched through the Lothians with fire and sword. He burnt to the ground Edinburgh and Haddington, and then retreated from want of provisions. The Scots call the period “Burnt Candlemas.” (See “Epochs of History,” England under the Plantagenets; and Macmillan's series, Little History of Scotland, edited by Prof. Freeman.)

Bursa (a bull's hide). So the citadel of Carthage was called. The tale is that when Dido came to Africa she bought of the natives “as much land as could be encompassed by a bull's hide.” The agreement was made, and Dido cut the hide into thongs, so as to enclose a space sufficient for a citadel.
   The following is a similar story: The Yakutsks granted to the Russian explorers as much land as they could encompass with a cow's hide; but the Russians, cutting the hide into strips, obtained land enough for the port and town of Yakutsk.
   The Indians have a somewhat similar tradition. The fifth incarnation of Vishnu was in the form of a dwarf called Vamen. Vamen, presenting himself before the giant Baly, asked as a reward for services as much land as he could measure in three paces to build a hut on. Baly laughed at the request, and freely granted it. Whereupon the dwarf grew so prodigiously large that, with three paces, he strode over the whole world. (Sonnerat: Voyages, vol. i. p. 24.)

Burst To inform against an accomplice. Slang variety of “split” (turn king's evidence, impeach). The person who does this splits or breaks up the whole concern.