Hypertext Webster Gateway: "burly"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (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; "a buirdly lad of twelve") [syn: {beefy}, {husky},
{strapping}, {buirdly}]
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