Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Strong and muscular. synonym: muscular.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Fleshy; muscular; having large strong muscles; bulky; strong.
  • Figuratively, firm; hardened; having great power of resistance.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having large, strong muscles; muscular; fleshy; strong.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Characterized by brawn; muscular; strong.
  • adjective Calloused; hardened.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (of a person) possessing physical strength and weight; rugged and powerful

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

brawn +‎ -y

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Examples

  • The Granite has what I would call a brawny look to it with muscular shoulders, a wide mouth of a grill, and an interior that conveys a solidness in tri-tone color.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows BazzaDesign 2010

  • Today's idealized man, dare I say, appears less "brawny" and more beautiful, like the typical glowing female we are accustomed to seeing in magazines.

    Trisha Gura: From Brawny Men to Barbie's Ken - Who Are the Real Guys? 2009

  • Chrysler is also planning to insert its truck advertisements in or around "brawny" shows like "Ice Road Truckers."

    Sales of Souped-Up Pickups Slow 2008

  • Also, I lack the upper body strength required to really be considered "brawny".

    sirilyan Diary Entry sirilyan 2004

  • {42} It is not the least of Lord Macaulay's offences against art that he should have contributed the temporary weight of his influence as a critic to the support of so ignorant and absurd a tradition of criticism as that which classes the great writer here mentioned with the brutal if "brawny"

    A Study of Shakespeare Algernon Charles Swinburne 1873

  • As Mr. Swinburne has said, the art of Congreve is different in kind, not merely in degree, from the cruder and more boisterous product of the 'brawny' dramatist.

    The Comedies of William Congreve Volume 1 [of 2] William Congreve 1699

  • It's commonly associated with male street prostitutes or the kind of brawny erotic dancers who entertain women at bachelorette parties.

    the latest from teenvogue.com 2010

  • With this in mind, Urs Hölzle is proposing that for Google work loads the "brawny" Xeons are better then the "wimpy" Atoms.

    LXer Linux News Ph.D. Douglas Eadline 2010

  • With this in mind, Urs Hölzle is proposing that for Google work loads the "brawny" Xeons are better then the "wimpy" Atoms.

    tuxmachines.org aggregator 2010

  • For his turn as the skilled archer, Crowe is described as "brawny" with a "masculine swagger" and bearing much similarity to his title role in

    The Age News Headlines 2010

Comments

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  • The English language befriends the grand American expression—it is brawny enough, and limber and full enough. Whitman, Preface 1855

    December 9, 2006