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.
As the American painter recalled years later, Borger in the 1920s was a settlement of “rough shacks, oil rigs, pungent stinks from gas pockets, and broad-faced, big-boned Texas oil speculators.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the right guest in every way for the big-boned performance at the Huntington.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 12, 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
Later in their careers, as Ms. Ahrens and Mr. Flaherty took on big-boned projects like “Ragtime” and “Anastasia,” they produced big-boned songs that sometimes struck me as turgid.
From New York Times • Dec. 3, 2017
He was big-boned, with thick, spatu- late fingers.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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.
