burly
pronunciation
How to pronounce burly in British English:
UK [ˈbɜ:li]
How to pronounce burly in American English:
US [ˈbɜrli]
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- Adjective:
- muscular and heavily built
Word Origin
- burly
- burly: [13] Burly has come down in the world over the centuries. Originally it meant ‘excellent, noble, stately’, and it appears to come from an unrecorded Old English adjective *būrlic, literally ‘bowerly’ – that is, ‘fit to frequent a lady’s apartment’. Gradually, connotations of ‘stoutness’ and ‘sturdiness’ began to take over, and by the 15th century the modern ‘heavily built’ had become well established.=> boor, booth, bower
- burly (adj.)
- c. 1300, perhaps from Old English burlic "noble, stately," literally "bowerly," fit to frequent a lady's apartment (see bower). Sense descended through "stout," and "sturdy" by 15c. to "heavily built." Another theory connects the Old English word to Old High German burlih "lofty, exalted," related to burjan "to raise, lift."
Example
- 1. On the train a few weeks ago , I sat next to a burly garment supplier .
- 2. Police were posted along the route to guard potential sabotage points , while burly railway security personnel monitored each passenger car .
- 3. Panama city , fla. - the burly , bipolar man who held a florida school board at gunpoint was frustrated and broke .
- 4. We watched as a burly man in a red tank top poured a can of coke into an ice-free glass .
- 5. The burly , bearded engineer wanders over to inspect a chipmaking robot-a " pick and place " machine the size of a pizza oven .