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stoutest |
1 definition found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Stout \Stout\, a. [Compar. {Stouter}; superl. {Stoutest}.] [D. stout bold (or OF estout bold, proud, of Teutonic origin); akin to AS stolt, G. stolz, and perh. to E. stilt.] 1. Strong; lusty; vigorous; robust; sinewy; muscular; hence firm; resolute; dauntless. With hearts stern and stout. --Chaucer. A stouter champion never handled sword. --Shak. He lost the character of a bold, stout, magnanimous man. --Clarendon. The lords all stand To clear their cause most resolutely stout. --Daniel. 2. Proud; haughty; arrogant; hard. [Archaic] Your words have been stout against me --Mal. iii. 13. Commonly . . . they that be rich are lofty and stout. --Latimer. 3. Firm; tough; materially strong; enduring; as a stout vessel, stick, string, or cloth. 4. Large bulky; corpulent. Syn: {Stout}, {Corpulent}, {Portly}. Usage: Corpulent has reference simply to a superabundance or excess of flesh. Portly implies a kind of stoutness or corpulence which gives a dignified or imposing appearance. Stout, in our early writers (as in the English Bible), was used chiefly or wholly in the sense of strong or bold; as a stout champion; a stout heart; a stout resistance, etc At a later period it was used for thickset or bulky, and more recently, especially in England, the idea has been carried still further, so that Taylor says in his Synonyms: ``The stout man has the proportions of an ox he is corpulent, fat, and fleshy in relation to his size.'' In America, stout is still commonly used in the original sense of strong as a stout boy; a stout pole.
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