Word.ws English Dictionary

churly

UK/ˈtʃɜːli/US/ˈt͡ʃɝli/

churly adjective: rude; churlish; violent.

Adjective

churly (comparative churlier, superlative churliest)

  1. (archaic) rude; churlish; violent
    • He was the churliest of the churls;
      Little he cared for king or earls;
      Bitter as home-brewed ale were his foaming passions1863 November 23, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Musician’s Tale. The Saga of King Olaf.”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC

Forms of churly

comparativechurlier
superlativechurliest

Origin of churly

From Middle English cherly, cherlich, cherllich, charlyche, equivalent to churl + -ly, but often interpreted as churl + -y. Compare English churlish.

Words that rhyme with churly

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about churly

What does churly mean?
Churly means rude; churlish; violent.
What part of speech is churly?
Churly is an adjective.
How do you pronounce churly?
Churly is pronounced /ˈtʃɜːli/ (UK).

Words near churly in the dictionary

  1. churl
  2. churlish
  3. churlishly
  4. churlishness
  5. churls
  6. churly
  7. churm
  8. churme
  9. churmes
  10. churms
  11. churmuri

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: churly (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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