Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Large; stout; burly.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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I don't everyways like Missus Tresize, but she's a bowerly woman an 'nimble for her age -- which can't be forty, not by a year or two.
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Mrs Pengelly was a bowerly woman, and traded in lollipops.
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a braave, bowerly maid you'm grawin ', sure' nough!
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"Lord!" he exclaimed, "but that's a poor lookout for such a bowerly maid as you be!
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880.
qms commented on the word bowerly
Bowerly is very lightly documented. It seems to be a variant of burly in some dialect in England. Curiously, all the usage examples supplied apply the adjective to women. It may be one of those words like catty, that we assume to be a description of female behavior, or bastard, which is an epithet restricted to males, although in neither case does the word's root meaning imply such a limit. Bowerly does denote impressive size but does not seem especially pejorative.
March 31, 2015
qms commented on the word bowerly
Retreat was more kindly than cowardly;
From "bower" he guessed wee and flowery.
His hopeful surmise
Was dashed by her size.
She's no dainty bud if she's bowerly.
March 31, 2015