Brawny

//bɹɔni// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Characterized by brawn; muscular, thewy; strong.

    "Rattler was a big, brawny fellow, and he stepped up in front of me, rolling up his sleeves."

  2. 2
    Calloused; hardened.
Adjective
  1. 1
    (of a person) possessing physical strength and weight; rugged and powerful wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
strongable-bodiedadiposeathleticbeefybig-bellied

Antonyms

All antonyms
weak

Example

More examples

"As Phil Pfister's 24-hour shift at Firestation 2 comes to a close, he switches his mind set from fire fighter, to strongman. Three years ago, the brawny, blue eyed, blond entered a strongman weight-lifting competition. He easily won and never looked back."

Etymology

From Middle English brawny; equivalent to brawn + -y.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.