broad in the beam

1. Having broad hips or large buttocks. For example, I've grown too broad in the beam for these slacks. This expression originated in the 17th century and described the wideness of a ship. It began to be used for the human body only in the 1920s.

Example Sentences

Meant stylistically to recall the 1953 Silver Dawn drophead — the first Rolls-Royce vehicle built as Britain began to recover from World War II — the new Dawn is long and broad in the beam, with graceful lines that suggest sinuous, sophisticated strength.

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My third was: “The big belted look is not recommended for those broad in the beam.”

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The Perhaps was a full-rigged ship, with auxiliary steam, broad in the beam, with strong, rounded bows.

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She was broad in the beam for a yacht, but consequently safe and comfortable.

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She smiled and tossed her head even when he came back and told us with great heartiness that he had bought a vessel—a north-country collier of near four hundred tons, stout in her timbers and broad in the beam, built for strength rather than speed—just such a vessel as Captain Cook had sailed in.

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