Bur"ly (?), 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.
© Webster 1913.