gurry
/ɡˈɝi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.47 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The time interval indicated by striking the gurry. Originally, this was twenty-two and a half minutes, but later, under British influence, changed to an hour.
Indian usage
Example Sentences
- "Among those in general use that have drawn the attention of Europeans living in India, are the alloys for the gurry, and the Biddery ware. The gurry is a disk of a cubit and upwards in diameter, about half an inch in thickness in the centre, but decreasing toward the circumference, where it is scarcely more than 1/4 of an inch. It is used to mark the divisions of time, by striking it with a wooden mallet."
- "As they have no hour glasses, they measure their time by a kind of clepsydra. It is a small brass basin, about four inches in diameter, made thin enough to float on the water, with a hole in the bottom which admits as much as to fill it exactly in one gurry, or twenty-two and a half minutes. The sinking, therefore, of the vessel, is the signal for striking the gurry, and warning the inhabitants."
- "54 On the 18th, we halted at sunset, as usual, and most of us were walking out into the woods -- some getting wood for cooking, others looking for hares — when we heard a gurry strike seven o'clock."
- "Maha Rajah then got up, and we three likewise took our leaves; when we went into an outer house, Seat Bollakey Doss said to me, Do you likewise come along with me; and I haveing gotten a bond written out and sealed, you will see it done; he having said this, I agreed; he having got into his palankeen went away, we four people followed him, he having gone with his palankeen, half a gurry after we followed him, we likewise arrived at his house."
- "Half a gurry after that, I went away too."
- "As they have no hour glasses, they measure their time by a kind of clepsydra. It is a small brass basin, about four inches in diameter, made thin enough to float on the water, with a hole in the bottom which admits as much as to fill it exactly in one gurry, or twenty-two and a half minutes."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
gurries (plural)
gyre (alternative, dialectal)
gyur (alternative, dialectal)
ger (alternative, dialectal)
gerr (alternative, dialectal)
gurr (alternative, dialectal)