burl

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
burl1 /bəːl/

▶noun

• 1 a lump in wool or cloth.

• 2 N. Amer. a rounded knotty growth on a tree.

– origin ME: from OFr. bourle ‘tuft of wool’, dimin. of bourre ‘coarse wool’, from late L. burra ‘wool’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
burl2 /bəːl/

▶noun Austral./NZ an attempt.

– origin early 20th cent.: regional usage of birl.