BURLY
beefy, burly, husky, strapping, buirdly
(adjective) muscular and heavily built; âa beefy wrestlerâ; âhad a tall burly frameâ; âclothing sizes for husky boysâ; âa strapping boy of eighteenâ; ââbuirdlyâ is a Scottish termâ
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology 1
Adjective
burly (comparative burlier, superlative burliest)
(usually, of a man) Large, well-built, and muscular.
(Britain, East End of London, slang) Great, amazing, unbelievable.
(US, slang, surf culture and/or Southern California) Of large magnitude, either good or bad, and sometimes both.
Etymology 2
Adjective
burly (comparative more burly, superlative most burly)
Full of burls or knots; knotty.
Source: Wiktionary
Bur"ly, a. Etym: [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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition