Manly vs Burly - What's the difference?

manly | burly |

As adjectives the difference between manly and burly

is that manly is having the characteristics of a man while burly is large, well-built, and muscular.

manly

English

Adjective

(er)

Having the characteristics of a man.

Having qualities befitting a man; courageous, resolute, noble.

* Shakespeare

Let's briefly put on manly readiness.

* Dryden

Serene and manly , hardened to sustain / The load of life.

* 2001 , Thomas W. Smith, Revaluing Ethics: Aristotle's Dialectical Pedagogy (page 86)

Without a successful defense of one's city, none of the other virtues would be possible; manly courage seems to be a precondition for anything else worth achieving in life.

Derived terms

* manliness

Antonyms

* womanly

burly

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (dialectal)

Adjective

(er)

(usually, of a man) Large, well-built, and muscular.

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

She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.

(slang) Originating from the east end of London, England. An expressive term to mean something is good, awesome, amazing, unbelievable. e.g That goal was burly, or Räikkönen is a burly Formula 1 driver.

(slang) Originating from surfer culture and/or Southern California. An expressive term to mean something is of 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.