Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Large and well made; stout in appearance; burly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Scottish strong and heavily built; -- of people.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Scotland
Sturdy , well-built;solid ,stocky .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective muscular and heavily built
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In after years, when he filled and rounded out, he had a manly open look, illumined always as by sunlight for his friends, and a well-proportioned, 'buirdly' form, that well entitled him to the name of man in Queen Elizabeth's full sense of the word.
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Mr. Galt was about five feet eleven: his father, who I had seen when a boy, about six feet four, and "buirdly" and stout in proportion.
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"Ye're aye cute, dame," I cried, thrawing the bit gy abune, and in a gliffing, doun jumpit the chiel, and a braw chiel he was sure enough, siccan my auld e'en sall ne'er see again, wi 'his brent brow and buirdly bowk wrappit in a tartan plaid, wi' a Highland kilt.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 289, December 22, 1827 Various
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One _buirdly_ body, whose proportions were not easy to conceal, caught my eye one day as I was paddling about among a swarm of merry swimmers.
From a Terrace in Prague Lieut.-Col. B. Granville Baker
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But Jock cam' to questions, and being a fallow/Stout, buirdly and sonsy, he soon pleased her taste,/And awa' went the twasome, haup-jaup in their daffin',/Thro' wynds and blind alleys no time for to waste.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 Various
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There my kettle boiled for forty years - there I bore twelve buirdly sons and daughters - where are they now?
Chapter LIII 1917
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An 'buirdly chiels and clever hizzies [stout lads, girls]
Robert Burns How To Know Him William Allan Neilson 1907
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To his face she referred to him as a doited sumph, but to Grizel pleading for him she admitted that despite his warts and quarrelsome legs he was a great big muckle sonsy, stout, buirdly well set up, wise-like, havering man.
Tommy and Grizel 1898
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John was the blacksmith, a big buirdly fellow with a larger blunt head.
A Son of Hagar A Romance of Our Time Hall Caine 1892
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The body of the men remained in the clearing, conversing in knots, while two miners, buirdly fellows, rather gruffer of tongue than the rest, went to the office to act as spokesmen.
A Son of Hagar A Romance of Our Time Hall Caine 1892
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