different between tubby vs burly

English

Etymology

From tub +? -y. False cognate with chubby, even though they are often interchangeable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?bi/

• Rhymes: -?bi

Adjective

tubby (comparative tubbier, superlative tubbiest)

1. stout, rotund
2. Resembling a tub; sounding dull and without resonance or freedom of sound.

   a tubby violin

Derived terms

• tubbiness

Translations

Noun

tubby (plural tubbies)

1. (derogatory, slang, often used teasingly) An overweight person.

Derived terms

• Teletubby

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b??li/

• Rhymes: -??(r)li

Etymology 1

From Middle English burly, burely, borly, burlich, borlich, borlic (“tall, stately”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots burely, burly (“rough, stout, sturdy, strong”). Perhaps from Old English *b?rl?? (“noble, stately”, literally “bowerly”), equivalent to bower +? -ly; or from Old English *byrl?? (“high, raised”), from byre (“raised area, mound”), cognate with Old High German burl?h, purl?h (“lofty, elevated, high, exalted”), related to Old High German burjan (“to raise, lift, push up”). See burgeon.

Alternative forms

• bowerly (dialectal)

Adjective

burly (comparative burlier, superlative burliest)

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

2. (Britain, East End of London, slang) Great, amazing, unbelievable.

3. (US, slang, surf culture and/or Southern California) Of large magnitude, either good or bad, and sometimes both.

Translations

Etymology 2

burl +? -y

Adjective

burly (comparative more burly, superlative most burly)

1. Full of burls or knots; knotty.

Middle English

Adjective

burly

1. Alternative form of burely