How to use burly in a sentence

23 example sentences · adjective

Burly means large, well-built, and muscular. Example: “He’s a big, burly rugby player who works as a landscape gardener.”

Examples of burly by meaning

adjectiveLarge, well-built, and muscular.

He’s a big, burly rugby player who works as a landscape gardener.

adjectiveGreat, amazing, unbelievable.

That goal was burly.
Kimi Räikkönen is a burly Formula 1 driver.

adjectiveOf large magnitude, either good or bad, and sometimes both.

That wave was burly! (i.e. large, dangerous and difficult to ride)
This hike is going to be burly, but worth it because there is good body surfing at that beach.

More sentences with burly

His rough, burly father was mortified by the lad's pantywaist behavior.From the entry pantywaist
He was awakened by a couple of burly police officers and huckled out to a waiting van.2013, Michael Munro, The Crack: The Best of Glasgow Humour. From the entry huckle
I walk briskly away from the howling child and the burly cop and the snickering shoppie.2008, Lauren Beukes, Moxyland, Jacana Media, →ISBN, page 105. From the entry spaza
One burly, bald headed prisoner had given me a hard time.2004, Joseph Quitman Johnson, Baby of Bataan: Memoir of a 14 Year Old Soldier in World War II, page 107. From the entry prison chaser
Two burly men, dressed twinsy-style in identical tight pants and tanktops, swaggered along, linked by their pinkies.1979, Garry Wills, At Button’s, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews and McMeel, Inc., →ISBN, page 148. From the entry twinsy
"Harry had been about eight when three burly high school kids had followed him home, threatening to 'depants that little nerd.'"2004, Vicki Lewis Thompson, The Nerd Who Loved Me, St. Martin's Press,, →ISBN, page 72. From the entry depants
He had just finished hosing gasoline into his tank, a short man, burly, needing a shave, and wearing greasy coveralls.2003, Tony Hillerman, The Sinister Pig, →ISBN, page 57. From the entry hose
One wall, covered with paintings of burly, cigared men and buxom, sun-glassed women, is a rainbow of pastels.1981 May 15, Peggy Meill, “In School With Aidron Duckworth”, in Valley News, volume 28, number 286, page 15. From the entry cigared
A burly Negro guard opened the door.1970, Wally Ferris, Across 110th, page 67. From the entry incongruously
“I resent anyone making up my mind but my wife,” said a burly friend of mine to me one day.1929 December 17, J. M. Ballantyne, “Between You and Me”, in The Tulsa Tribune, volume XXVI, number 73, Tulsa, Okla., page twenty-four…. From the entry autocratess
Yet the burly traffic policeman wears the effeminate or senile rubber without shame as a part of his uniform.1923 March 25, Bally Fairfield Burton, “The Folly Test of Fashion”, in The New York Times (Magazine section), volume LXXII, number 23,801…. From the entry namby-pambiness
Lovell, wan and hollow-eyed, his arm in a sling, his once burly frame gaunt and attenuated with disease, nodded.1906, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 1, in The Malefactor. From the entry attenuate
There was a pair of burly dwarves – a woman and a man – bearing the markings of the formidable Thane Guards.2014, Oisin McGann, Kings of the Realm: Cruel Salvation, Penguin UK, →ISBN. From the entry man
How come those two got killed?" demanded the burlier of the pair, tapping a nightstick across his palm with loud swacking sounds.2001, Jake Logan, Railroad to Hell, page 4. From the entry swacking
For amid the travailsome throes of this political hurly burly is sent a prime sensation to relieve the tension of the public mind.1909 September 3, “Pointed Pars”, in The Telegraph, number 11,481, Brisbane, Qld., →OCLC, page 6, column 4. From the entry travailsome
A huge, crazyloud group of guys—mostly giant, burly football players and their friends—had gathered in the cafeteria, laughing, fistbumping, and highfiving as they surrounded a guy named Jarrett.2012, Seventeen, Seventeen's Inspiring True Teen Stories. From the entry fistbump
Kurtzman, the wheelchair-bound yet still burly computer genius and head of Stony Man Farm's remarkable cyberteam, had sat watching the video forwarded from the President's personal smartphone.2011, Don Pendleton, Extermination, page 134. From the entry cyberteam
A burly mechanic wheeled in a bright yellow battery charger on a trolley, furtled under the bonnet and gave the car the full benefit of its volts.2005, Carole Matthews, You Drive Me Crazy, →ISBN. From the entry furtle

Meaning of burly

adjective Large, well-built, and muscular.
adjective Great, amazing, unbelievable.
adjective Of large magnitude, either good or bad, and sometimes both.

Full definition of burly

Questions about burly in a sentence

How do you use burly in a sentence?: Burly is used as an adjective. For example: “He’s a big, burly rugby player who works as a landscape gardener.”
What is a short sentence with burly?: “That goal was burly.”
What does burly mean?: Burly means large, well-built, and muscular.

Adapted from Wiktionary: burly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use burly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/burly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.