as in athletic
strongly and heavily built
a burly delivery man brought the furniture
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of burly
With burly melancholy, Wong plays Ah Tseng, a Chinese migrant worker employed — with his young nephews — in the Rock Springs coal mines, though introduced on an idle day off in their makeshift camp.
—
Guy Lodge, Variety, 26 Jan. 2026
Peat, meanwhile, is a freak athlete, a big burly forward with explosive verticality.
—Lindsay Schnell, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2026
Venezuelans awoke the next morning to news that the tall, burly man who had ruled the country for nearly 13 years and through fraudulent elections was forcefully extradited by the Americans back to the United States to stand trial.
—Daniel Depetris, Chicago Tribune, 6 Jan. 2026
Topoak complements the burly shell construction with aluminum honeycomb floor panels and a tent body made from 300gsm poly-cotton blackout canvas designed to reflect UV rays and keep the interior cooler in hot weather.
—New Atlas, 13 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for burly
Guy Lodge, Variety, 26 Jan. 2026
Peat, meanwhile, is a freak athlete, a big burly forward with explosive verticality.
—Lindsay Schnell, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2026
Venezuelans awoke the next morning to news that the tall, burly man who had ruled the country for nearly 13 years and through fraudulent elections was forcefully extradited by the Americans back to the United States to stand trial.
—Daniel Depetris, Chicago Tribune, 6 Jan. 2026
Topoak complements the burly shell construction with aluminum honeycomb floor panels and a tent body made from 300gsm poly-cotton blackout canvas designed to reflect UV rays and keep the interior cooler in hot weather.
—New Atlas, 13 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for burly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for burly
Adjective
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Given that fewer than 2% of student-athletes turn pro, the chance to earn compensation for athletic services will end in college for most college athletes.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
22 Feb. 2026
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Southern Connecticut’s athletic community received shocking and terrible news earlier this month with the sudden passing of longtime swimming coach Tim Quill, just as his teams were about to compete in the Northeast 10 conference championships.—
Dom Amore,
Hartford Courant,
22 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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But like the British wartime leader who also led his country’s fight against a bigger, more powerful enemy, Zelensky has made missteps along the way and his future looks increasingly uncertain as the war grinds on.—
Ivana Kottasová,
CNN Money,
20 Feb. 2026
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What a trigger warning presumes is that readers are entitled to be protected before the fact from the possibility of powerful emotion, an odd entitlement at best and one that is seldom afforded to any being in the course of the rest of life.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
19 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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One such pet, Lainey, a husky shepherd, was found after going missing in Arizona with the help of a neighbor's Ring camera.—
Melina Khan,
USA Today,
13 Feb. 2026
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The team can help plan reindeer and husky rides, reindeer farm visits, snowmobiles tours across the area’s fells and taiga forests, or Aurora-chasing tours, guided by local experts.—
Dobrina Zhekova,
Travel + Leisure,
29 Dec. 2025
Adjective
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Mushrooms Mushrooms provide a beefy, hearty flavor and texture.—
Carrie Madormo,
Verywell Health,
11 Feb. 2026
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The beefy treats can be found in joints from West Palm Beach down to the eastern end of Alligator Alley.—
Robert F. Moss,
Southern Living,
10 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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These small-but-mighty gizmos and gadgets are all under $10 and arrive with fast Prime shipping.—
Mariana Best,
Better Homes & Gardens,
15 Feb. 2026
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In the 21st century, the altar would again be mightier than the throne.—
Josef Joffe,
The Atlantic,
14 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Young boys cleaned test tubes, brawny machinists built gauges and mills, and scales delicate enough to weigh an inch of a spider's web.—
Natalia Sánchez Loayza,
Scientific American,
5 Feb. 2026
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Electric SUVs and pickup trucks from Rivian, where Elias also worked, can fit 7,776 cylindrical batteries into a brawny, 135 kilowatt-hour pack.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
3 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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And when the shot fell, Adams, that hulking, tattooed New Zealander, shimmied like Curry.—
Joe Vardon,
New York Times,
11 Feb. 2026
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The place was used for wild beast hunts, public executions, and gladiator fights for several hundred years, then became a condo of sorts as medieval Romans made their homes in the hulking ruins.—
Katie Parla,
Condé Nast Traveler,
9 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Gabriel Vaughn is what the river community would call a stout boater.—
Outside,
Outside,
20 Feb. 2026
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Some centers, like Brook Lopez at his peak with the Milwaukee Bucks or Ivica Zubac before his trade from the LA Clippers, tend to do their work quietly with stout positional defense in drop coverage and strong verticality while taking up an immense amount of space.—
Sam Vecenie,
New York Times,
19 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Burly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/burly. Accessed 23 Feb. 2026.
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