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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 This word is obsolete or nearly so in America; but hurly-burly is common in vulgar use, for noise, confusion, uproar.

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