What does "stout" mean?
Stout: Proud; haughty; arrogant; hard. [Archaic] Your words have been stout against me. Mal. iii.
Additional senses
- 2.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. 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.
- 5.A strong malt liquor; strong porter. Swift.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00