broad in the beam

Idioms  

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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

broad in the beam

She is a sixteen-footer and quite fast, in spite of being rather broad in the beam.

From Us and the Bottleman by Edith Ballinger Price

"I 've got a wherry, ane of them Wicklow craft; she's only half-decked, but she's a stout-looking sea-boat, and broad in the beam."

From The Knight Of Gwynne, Vol. I (of II) by Charles James Lever

She was a roomy vessel, very broad in the beam, with a graceful curve in her bows, and masts which were taller than any that I had seen on such a boat on the Solent.

From Micah Clarke His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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

From The Turnstile by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

She was somewhat broad in the beam, like a Dutch hoy, and all I could see was a dull glimmer somewhere ahead in the darkness.

From The Yeoman Adventurer by George W. Gough

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