wurlie

English

Etymology 1

Adjective

wurlie (comparative wurlier or more wurlie, superlative wurliest or most wurlie)

1. (Scotland) Alternative spelling of wurly (“derisorily small”).
   • [1825, John Jamieson, “Wurlie”, in Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: […], volume II (K–Z) (in Scots), Edinburgh: […] University Press; for W[illiam] & C[harles] Tait, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 700, column 2:

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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)]

   • [1905, “WIRL, sb.”, in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 515, column 1:

     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.).]

2. (Scotland) gnarled, knotted; wizened, wrinkled.
   • [1825, John Jamieson, “Wurlie”, in Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language: […], volume II (K–Z) (in Scots), Edinburgh: […] University Press; for W[illiam] & C[harles] Tait, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 700, column 2:

     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.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)]

Synonyms

• (derisorily small): dinky, petty, puny; see also Thesaurus:small or Thesaurus:tiny
• (gnarled, knotted): gnarly, knobbly, knobby, knotty
• (wizened, wrinkled): bewrinkled, rugose, wrinkly; see also Thesaurus:wrinkled

Etymology 2

Noun

wurlie (plural wurlies)

1. Alternative spelling of wurley.
   • 1846, E. Lloyd, “Biographical Sketch”, in A Visit to the Antipodes: With Some Reminiscences of a Sojourn in Australia, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill, →OCLC, page 165:

     But latterly they came in good numbers, and commenced a nightly system of annoyance by dancing their corroberies: […]. Finding remonstrance of no avail, one evening, when they were all seated quietly at the wurlie [footnote: Encampment.], I fired a charge of small shot into the midst of them, and retired to the hut: in the morning they had all disappeared.