A Scottish dialect word for a small stream or brook — one of those babbling, pebbly little waterways that wind through hills and glens. Burnie has a lovely, miniature quality to it that perfectly matches the tiny scale of the streams it describes. Used in everyday Scottish speech and in poetry, it evokes the peaceful, green landscapes of rural Scotland. It's the kind of word that sounds exactly like what it means: small, cheerful, and running.
The kids spent the afternoon splashing about in the burnie at the edge of the farm.
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(Scotland) A small brook.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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