wurly

Adjective

wurly (comparative wurlier or more wurly, superlative wurliest or most wurly)

1. (Scotland, Northern England (Yorkshire)) Of an object: derisorily small, tiny; of a person: puny, stunted.
   • Wurlie, 1. Contemptibly puny, or small in size; as "a wurlie bodie," an ill-grown person, Fife, Loth.[1825, John Jamieson, “Wurlie”, in Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: […], volume II (K–Z) (in Scots), Edinburgh: […] University Press; for W[illiam] & C[harles]...
   • Thy wee roun' pate sae black and curly, / Thy twa bare feet, sae stoure an' burly, / The biting frost, though snell an' surly / An' sair to bide, / Is scouted by thee, thou hardy wurly, / Wi' sturdy pride.1856, James Ballantine, “The Wee Raggit Laddie”, in [John D. Carrick, Alexander Rodger, and David Robertson], editors, Whistle-binkie or The Piper of the Party: Being a Collection of Songs for the...

   Synonyms:

   dinky

2. (Scotland) gnarled, knotted; wizened, wrinkled.
   • Wurlie, […] 2. Rough, knotted; as, "a wurlie rung," a knotted stick, S. It is applied to a stick that is distorted, Lanarks. As this sense, however, is considerably remote from the other, the term may have had a different origin. 3. Wrinkled, applied to a person; as, a wurly body, Lanarks.[1825, John Jamieson, “Wurlie”, in Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: […], volume II (K–Z), Edinburgh: […] University Press; for W[illiam] & C[harles] Tait, […]...

   Synonyms:

   gnarly, knobbly, knobby, knotty, bewrinkled