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Webster 1913 Edition

Burly

Bur′ly

(bûr′ly̆)
,
Adj.
[OE.
burlich
strong, excellent; perh. orig. fit for a lady’s bower, hence handsome, manly, stout. Cf.
Bower
.]
1.
Having a large, strong, or gross body; stout; lusty; – now used chiefly of human beings, but formerly of animals, in the sense of stately or beautiful, and of inanimate things that were huge and bulky.
“Burly sacks.”
Drayton.
In his latter days, with overliberal diet, [he was] somewhat corpulent and
burly
.
Sir T. More.
Burly
and big, and studious of his ease.
Cowper.
2.
Coarse and rough; boisterous.
It was the orator's own
burly
way of nonsense.
Cowley.

Webster 1828 Edition

Burly

BURL'Y

,
Adj.
[The sense probably is swelled.] Great in size; bulky; timid; falsely great; boisterous. This word is obsolete or nearly so in America; but hurly-burly is common in vulgar use, for noise, confusion, uproar.

Definition 2024

burly

burly

See also: burley

English

Alternative forms

  • bowerly (dialectal)

Adjective

burly ‎(comparative burlier, superlative burliest)

  1. (usually of a man) Large, well-built, and muscular.
    He's a big, burly rugby player who works as a landscape gardener.
    • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter III:
      She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
  2. (Britain, slang, East End of London) Great, amazing, unbelievable.
    That goal was burly.
    Räikkönen is a burly Formula 1 driver.
  3. (US, slang, surf culture and/or Southern California) Of large magnitude, either good or bad, and sometimes both.
    That wave was burly! (i.e. large, dangerous and difficult to ride)
    This hike is going to be burly, but worth it because there is good body surfing at that beach.

Translations

Etymology

From Middle English burly, burely, borly, burlich, borlich, borlic ‎(“tall, stately”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots burely, burly ‎(“rough, stout, sturdy, strong”). Perhaps from Old English *būrlīċ ‎(“noble, stately”, literally “bowerly”), equivalent to bower +‎ -ly; or from Old English *byrlīċ ‎(“high, raised”), from byre ‎(“raised area, mound”), cognate with Old High German burlīh, purlīh ‎(“lofty, elevated, high, exalted”), related to Old High German burjan ‎(“to raise, lift, push up”). See burgeon.

Pronunciation

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