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:
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
In less than a decade, he revived the western with his smash hit “Yellowstone” and spun out a Sheridan-verse of shows with brawny characters in heartland settings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
He’s also played by Cena, a retiring professional wrestler who embodies the white American male ideal – brawny, handsome, a good guy.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2025
It’s not clear the ex to whom she is referring, but she famously dated and was engaged to NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers — another brawny, bearded man.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025
Then the door to the apartment flew open, and two large, tough, brawny M.P.s with icy eyes and firm, sinewy, unsmiling jaws entered quickly, strode across the room, and arrested Yossarian.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Caan’s taking the lead in Norman Jewison’s big-budget sports movie could have looked like the same move, downshifting his considerable onscreen intelligence into something a bit brawnier.
From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2022
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
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
I couldn’t help thinking that I never saw brawnier, wirier men than those young farmers who met Earl P— at his political meeting.
From The Cruise of the Land-Yacht "Wanderer" Thirteen Hundred Miles in my Caravan by Stables, Gordon
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.
