01 a. Strong; lusty; vigorous; robust; sinewy; muscular; hence, firm; resolute; dauntless.
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1.
Strong; lusty; vigorous; robust; sinewy; muscular; hence, firm; resolute; dauntless.“With hearts stern and stout.” — Chaucer.“A stouter champion never handled sword.” — Shak.“He lost the character of a bold, stout, magnanimous man.” — Clarendon.“The lords all stand To clear their cause, most resolutely stout.” — Daniel.
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2.
Proud; haughty; arrogant; hard.[Archaic]“Your words have been stout against me.” — Mal. iii. 13.“Commonly . . . they that be rich are lofty and stout.” — Latimer.
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3.
Firm; tough; materially strong; enduring; as, a stout vessel, stick, string, or cloth.
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4.
Large; bulky; corpulent.
Syn.
Stout, Corpulent, Portly.
Corpulent has reference simply to a superabundance or excess of flesh. Portly implies a kind of stoutness or corpulence which gives a dignified or imposing appearance. Stout, in our early writers (as in the English Bible), was used chiefly or wholly in the sense of strong or bold; as, a stout champion; a stout heart; a stout resistance, etc. At a later period it was used for thickset or bulky, and more recently, especially in England, the idea has been carried still further, so that Taylor says in his Synonyms: “The stout man has the proportions of an ox; he is corpulent, fat, and fleshy in relation to his size.” In America, stout is still commonly used in the original sense of strong as, a stout boy; a stout pole.