Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being burly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Quality of being burly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The characteristic of being burly.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word burliness.

Examples

  • But perhaps best of all is the fact that the Workforce 610, despite a name that suggests burliness, is small enough to stash just about anywhere.

    Wired Top Stories 2009

  • In my mind I kept defaulting to _he_ because of his height of almost two and a half meters and his burliness.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2005

  • Most irritating in those last two instances, the extra bits tend to overshadow fine contributions from outsiders, including Cheb Mami's lovely chanting on 'Rose' and James Taylor's faux-burliness on 'Up'.

    Brand New Day 1999

  • Their physical aspects ranged from the bearded and faintly odorous burliness of Mr. Petrowitz to the rat-faced and yellow-toothed scrawniness of Mr. Pargo; but all of them had the same dominant characteristic in common.

    The Saint in Action Charteris, Leslie 1937

  • He was a big-limbed, deliberate man, whose quiet burliness lent to an ample silk-faced frock-coat a superfine dignity.

    Nostromo: a Tale of the Seaboard 1904

  • He was a big-limbed, deliberate man, whose quiet burliness lent to an ample silk-faced frock-coat a superfine dignity.

    Nostromo: a Tale of the Seaboard 1904

  • He was a big-limbed, deliberate man, whose quiet burliness lent to an ample silk-faced frock-coat a superfine dignity.

    Nostromo, a Tale of the Seaboard Joseph Conrad 1890

  • Atlas was he named not at his baptism, but half in admiration, half in derision by his mates, for his burliness of body and his inordinate greediness of all kinds, for he coveted, say they, the entire earth, clutched at a mighty part thereof, and what he seized upheld manfully.

    Romance of Roman Villas (The Renaissance) 1886

  • He was rather large for the house, and especially for the stairs; moreover, he had a certain burliness of walk, such as is acquired by men living constantly in the open.

    Tomaso's Fortune and Other Stories Henry Seton Merriman 1882

  • They were a striking pair as they stood together and plighted their faith calmly: he big and strong, almost to the point of burliness, and she slight, sweet and lissom.

    A Man and a Woman Stanley Waterloo 1879

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.