Read full poem →Then out of the cloud of settling dust
The burly form of an abbot appeared,
Reading his office he rode to the town.
Dictionary Entry
(usually of a man) Large, well-built, and muscular.
In a Sentence
“He’s a big, burly rugby player who works as a landscape gardener.”
Origin
Origin details are still being enriched for this entry.
Common Phrases
man burlyfigure burlymen burlyfellow burly. burlyform burlyburly twoburly big
Missing dictionary details are being fetched in the background.
Poetry examples for “burly”
Excerpts from the ReadingWillow English Library collection.
Read full poem →Flashed flickering forth fantastic flies,
Big bees their burly bodies swung,
Rooks roused with civic din the elms,
Read full poem →this enigmatic woman, so prone seemingly to don male costume, and
the burly clerk who attended her so faithfully and had brought her
home on the night of Mrs. Pethick Lawrence's spirited raid.
Read full poem →Till walk the world he can with bare his feet
And come where lies a coffer, burly all of blocks
Built of chancequarried, selfquained rocks
Read full poem →Short of stature, large of limb,
Burly face and russet beard,
All the women stared at him,
Read full poem →Egerton; and the personality whose voice sounds so distinct and human
in our ear is a more attractive one than the harsh, censorious, burly
but a little blustering Jonson of the epistles on country life and
Read full poem →Burly, dozing humble-bee,
Where thou art is clime for me.