Wurly

/ˈwɜːliː/ · adjective

Meaning

(Northern England (Yorkshire), Scotland) Of an object: derisorily small, tiny; of a person: puny, stunted..

Definitions by Sense

1. (Northern England (Yorkshire), Scotland) Of an object: derisorily small, tiny; of a person: puny, stunted.
2. (Scotland) gnarled, knotted; wizened, wrinkled.
3. (chiefly South Australia) Alternative spelling of wurley.

Example Sentences

Wurlie, 1. Contemptibly puny, or small in size; as "a wurlie bodie," an ill-grown person, Fife, Loth.

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.

Wurly [wur·li], adj. A very small portion of anything is of a wurly size; gen. 'What a wurly bit o' bread, and nought on 't!'[…], i.e. no butter, or anything on. The r is often strongly trilled in this word.

WIRL, sb. Sc. Yks. […] A small and harsh-featured person; an ill-grown child; a stunted animal. […] Hence (1) Wirly, adj. puny, small; (2) Wirly-bit, sb. a short time; a little way; a small portion. (1) Sc. There's nae a pilchard in my creel, Nor wurlie sprat … They're firm and fat (Jam.).

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.

Poor [William John] Wills's remains we found lying in the wurly in which he died, and where [John] King, after his return from seeking the natives, had buried him with sand and rushes.

And so those boys with stealthy pace / Returned the saddles to their place; / Then to their wurly quickly hied, / No doubt delighted with their ride.

Before night fell, they made themselves a shelter like a wurly by collecting large Wollemi pine fronds from the forest floor, leaning them against each other to make a peaked hut and joining them together with vines. It would offer some protection while they slept.

Synonyms for wurly

Antonyms for wurly

Related Words

Word Forms

• wurlier
• more wurly
• wurliest
• most wurly
• wirly
• wurlie
• wurlies

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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