The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Burly \Bur"ly\ (b[^u]r"l[y^]), a. [OE. burlich strong,
   excellent; perh. orig. fit for a lady's bower, hence
   handsome, manly, stout. Cf. Bower.]
   1. Having a large, strong, or gross body; stout; lusty; --
      now used chiefly of human beings, but formerly of animals,
      in the sense of stately or beautiful, and of inanimate
      things that were huge and bulky. "Burly sacks." --Drayton.
      [1913 Webster]

            In his latter days, with overliberal diet, [he was]
            somewhat corpulent and burly.         --Sir T. More.
      [1913 Webster]

            Burly and big, and studious of his ease. --Cowper.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Coarse and rough; boisterous.
      [1913 Webster]

            It was the orator's own burly way of nonsense.
                                                  --Cowley.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

burly
    adj 1: muscular and heavily built; "a beefy wrestler"; "had a
           tall burly frame"; "clothing sizes for husky boys"; "a
           strapping boy of eighteen"; "`buirdly' is a Scottish
           term" [syn: beefy, burly, husky, strapping,
           buirdly]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

69 Moby Thesaurus words for "burly":
   able-bodied, adipose, athletic, beefy, big, big-bellied, bloated,
   blowzy, bosomy, brawny, broad-shouldered, buxom, chubby, chunky,
   corpulent, distended, dumpy, fat, fattish, fleshy, full, gross,
   heavy, heavyset, hefty, hippy, husky, imposing, large, lusty,
   meaty, muscle-bound, muscular, obese, overweight, paunchy, plump,
   podgy, portly, potbellied, pudgy, puffy, pursy, roly-poly, rotund,
   rugged, sinewy, square, squat, squatty, stalwart, stocky, stout,
   strapping, strong, sturdy, swollen, thewy, thick-bodied, thickset,
   top-heavy, tough, tubby, well-built, well-fed, well-knit, well-set,
   well-set-up, wiry