brawny
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of brawny
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at brawn, -y 1
Explanation
Someone brawny is bulky and muscular. Most football players are brawny. Brawn refers to muscles and physical strength: people often contrast brains and brawn. Therefore, if someone is brawny, they have large muscles and are quite strong. Many athletes are brawny, especially ones such as weightlifters and football players. Tennis players and jockeys are usually smaller and not so brawny. A brawny person is big, strong, rugged, and tough. If you'd like to be brawnier, go to the gym.
Vocabulary lists containing brawny
Twelve Days in May
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The City of Ember
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Vigorous Vocab: Synonyms for "Strong"
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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.
See Examples For:
These signals piggyback on the brawny Bang & Olufsen audio system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
In its first return to theaters since the female-forward phenomenon, the El Segundo toymaker is turning to the brawny He-Man for another box-office lift.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Compared to the world-class athletes and physical specimens who catch footballs for a living, the Seattle wideout isn’t especially brawny, tall, or speedy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
Key details: Consumer spending, the chief engine of the economy, grew at a brawny 3.5% rate in third quarter.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025
Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, to hit a brawny soldier with an umbrella.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The truth is, however, that the auto industry is addicted to sales of big, heavy gas-fueled SUVs and pickups, which are only becoming brawnier with every model year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2020
But here in the real world, I’m meeting the reedy, 6-foot-4 Child — actual name, James Dover Grant — and not his brawnier, inch-taller hero.
From New York Times ● Oct. 23, 2019
This body type even pressed its way into our children’s bedrooms: studies show that action figures have become brawnier over the past 25 years.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 17, 2019
Yes, Jones told the brawnier Thome, he was done.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 29, 2018
There needs an infusion of strong Anglo-Saxon into religious literature, and a brawnier manliness and more impatience with insipidity, though it be prayerful and sanctimonious.
From Around The Tea-Table by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage
What is thought to be the world's debut bodybuilding contest, in 1901, saw 60 competitors trying to prove to a group of three judges who had the brawniest muscles.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2021
Through the Depression and the war years, the pages of Esquire were the place to be for the brightest and brawniest of American writers.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2017
From the stage, his brawniest hooks become stadium-grade singalongs, while his ballads offer an intimacy that can make the nosebleeds feel close.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 30, 2015
Stagg proved a brilliant formulator of X’s and O’s who likewise knew how to pluck the brawniest and nimblest from local high schools.
From New York Times ● Sep. 17, 2011
He was the largest and brawniest of the boys and seemed to be their leader.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
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.
