/pɜːs/, /pɜɹs/
OriginFrom Middle English purs, from Old English purs (“purse”), partly from pusa (“wallet, bag, scrip”) and partly from burse (“pouch, bag”).
Old English pusa comes from Proto-West Germanic *pusō, from Proto-Germanic *pusô (“bag, sack, scrip”), and is cognate with Old High German pfoso (“pouch, purse”), Low German pūse (“purse, bag”), Old Norse posi (“purse, bag”), Danish pose (“purse, bag”), Dutch beurs (“purse, bag”). Old English burse comes from Medieval Latin bursa (“leather bag”) (compare English bursar), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide, wine-skin”).
Compare also Old French borse (French bourse), Old Saxon bursa (“bag”), Old High German burissa (“wallet”).
- A small bag for carrying money.
“And then muſt many a man occupie as farre as his purſe would reache, and ſtretche out his legges accordynge to the length of his couerlet.”
- USA handbag (small bag usually used by women for carrying various small personal items)
“Master leathercrafter does handcrafted wallets, belts, purses, handbags etc., supporting self and helpers. Good enough to carve fantst art and portraits into leather.”
- A quantity of money given for a particular purpose.
“It was a historic and a hefty battle when Myler and Percy were scheduled to don the gloves for the purse of fifty sovereigns.”
- historicalA specific sum of money in certain countries: formerly 500 piastres in Turkey or 50 tomans in Persia.
- transitiveTo press (one's lips) in and together so that they protrude.
“1901, Matilde Serao, The Land of Cockayne, translator not credited, London: Heinemann, Chapter IV, p. 72, https://archive.org/details/landofcockayne00seraiala
The serving Sister pursed up her lips to ”
“1916, Leonid Andreyev, "An Original" in The Little Angel and Other Stories, translated by W. H. Lowe, New York: Alfred Knopf, p. 85, https://archive.org/details/littleangelother00andriala
Anton Ivanov”
“When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle – that's the thing.”
- To draw up or contract into folds or wrinkles; to pucker; to knit.
“[…] thou […] didst contract and purse thy brow together, / As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain / Some horrible conceit: […]”
“Upon hearing Billy's version, the sage Dansker seemed to divine more than he was told; and after a little meditation during which his wrinkles were pursed as into a point, quite effacing for the time ”
- To put into a purse.
“And I will go and purse the ducats straight,”
- intransitive, obsolete, rareTo steal purses; to rob.
“Why I'll purse; if that raise me not, I'll bet at bowling alleys, or man whores: I would fain live by others.”
- A surname from Middle English.
Formspurses(plural) · purses(present, singular, third-person) · pursing(participle, present) · pursed(participle, past) · pursed(past) · Purses(plural)