Meanings
burley1
plural burleys · alternative berley
- UScountableuncountableA tobacco grown mainly in Kentucky, used in making cigarettes.First known use late 19th c.
The price received by farmers at the auctions for burley has decreased, other conditions being about average, around 1.45 cents for each 10-million-pound increase in the production of burley
1952, Glenn Leroy Johnson, Burley Tobacco Control Programs, page 59 - AustraliaNew ZealandcountableuncountablefishingBlood and offal used by fishermen to attract fish.
Fish will swim up your burley trail looking for the source which should be where your baits are placed, instead of dumping a heap of burley at once where the fish will feed on it quickly and move on.
2018, Jacks Boric, “Fishing with Burley”, in Shimano Fishing OceaniaSynonyms: chum
burley2
alternative berley
- Burlesque.
It can vary anywhere from burley (burlesque) to Phi Beta Kappa. […]
2018 June 13, Brian Aldiss, Harry Harrison, Hell's Cartographers, Courier Dover Publications, →ISBN, page 712 more examples
Burley shows came to Times Square after vaudeville started its decline, and took over many of the darkened old theaters. The Minsky family had become synonymous with burlesque beginning in its earliest days, was hugely profitable.
2004 August 12, Vicki Gold Levi, Steven Heller, Times Square Style: Graphics from the Great White Way, Princeton Architectural Press, →ISBNThe Western Vaudeville Managers' Association (WVMA) and the Orpheum soon merged. [...] opined, "that the top all-around artist of today is Jim Barton, who was a burley comic, a skater, a storyteller, a dancer, a singer,[…]"
2007, Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, Donald McNeilly, Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 74
Burley3
- A surname.
- A village and civil parish in New Forest district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU2103).
- A small village and civil parish (without a council) in Rutland, England (OS grid ref SK8810).
- A suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE2780).
- A civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire; see Burley in Wharfedale.
- A city, the county seat of Cassia County, Idaho, United States.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounBlood and offal used by fishermen to attract fish.
Origin
Burley · proper noun
- Old Englishburh“burg”
- EnglishBurley
From Old English burh (“burg”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”).
More words from Old English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with burley
Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
burley. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burley
“burley.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burley. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “burley,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burley.
Source: burley on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.