boreen

Definition

A narrow, frequently unpaved, rural road in Ireland, often characterised by a ridge of grass growing in the middle.

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish bóithrín, from bóthar (“road”) and -ín (diminutive suffix).

Example Sentences

• "Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen \ And she smiled as she passed me by."
• "A boy in a disguise nobody believed in, an actor playing a part he didn't understand, he would trudge every rocky field and quaking bog, every pot-holed road and tortuous boreen, each of the thirteen villages on his father's estate, speaking the Irish he had learned from his father's servants."