big-boned
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of big-boned
First recorded in 1600–10
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At just over a foot tall, the “Maiden of Vulci” is an outlier in “Myth and Marble,” which is otherwise filled with big-boned, room-filling sculptures.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 22, 2025
These big-boned people pursued a semi-nomadic life on the steppes, tamed animals, kept domestic cattle and moved over large areas using horses and carts.
From Science Daily • Feb. 8, 2024
The bassist Omer Avital makes big-boned, ebullient, swinging music with a spine that’s equal parts 1950s Blue Note records and timeless Middle Eastern modes.
From New York Times • Mar. 30, 2018
Cassie, who also had “a Georgia Jagger gap between her front teeth,” was adventurous, self-assured and bold, whereas Julia was the more responsible of the two, and “as big-boned as Cassie was small.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 24, 2017
It’s as if she’s stepped down off the wall, the walls: the same round raw potato face, the hulky big-boned frame, the glittering spectacles and hairpin crown.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
