Burly

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Burly \Bur"ly\ (b[^u]r"l[y^]), a. [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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              In his latter days, with overliberal diet, [he was]
              somewhat corpulent and burly.         --Sir T. More.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Burly and big, and studious of his ease. --Cowper.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Coarse and rough; boisterous.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              It was the orator's own burly way of nonsense.
                                                    --Cowley.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  burly
       adj : muscular and heavily built; "a beefy wrestler"; "had a tall
             burly frame"; "clothing sizes for husky boys"; "a
             strapping boy of eighteen"; "`buirdly' is a Scottish
             term" [syn: {beefy}, {husky}, {strapping}, {buirdly}]
       [also: {burliest}, {burlier}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  69 Moby Thesaurus words for "burly":
     able-bodied, adipose, athletic, beefy, big, big-bellied, bloated,
     blowzy, bosomy, brawny, broad-shouldered, buxom, chubby, chunky,
     corpulent, distended, dumpy, fat, fattish, fleshy, full, gross,
     heavy, heavyset, hefty, hippy, husky, imposing, large, lusty,
     meaty, muscle-bound, muscular, obese, overweight, paunchy, plump,
     podgy, portly, potbellied, pudgy, puffy, pursy, roly-poly, rotund,
     rugged, sinewy, square, squat, squatty, stalwart, stocky, stout,
     strapping, strong, sturdy, swollen, thewy, thick-bodied, thickset,
     top-heavy, tough, tubby, well-built, well-fed, well-knit, well-set,
     well-set-up, wiry