Stout

Part of speech: noun (n.)

A strong malt liquor; strong porter. Swift.

Part of speech: adjective (a.)

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.

Synonyms: Stout, Corpulent, Portly. 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.