I’ve heard people describe someone as sticking like glue, or like Velcro, and burrs were the original inspiration for this modern sticky material.

Woodnoth, then, was a bit of a boring hanger-on of the poet George Herbert.

‘Woodnoth sticking to Herbert like a burr.’

Source: John Drury, Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert (London: Penguin Books, 2014), p. 227

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