big-boned
- adjective
- /ˈbɪɡˌboʊnd/
- I'm not really fat, just big-boned.
Maybe you're overweight, maybe you're short, maybe you're tall, maybe you're big boned, whatever.
- Maybe you're overweight, maybe you're short, maybe you're tall, maybe you're big boned, whatever.
Examples
-
Rita is not fat, she's just big-boned.
-
Miz Smith was a big-boned, dark-haired woman, not pretty, not even handsome, but impressively, commandingly feminine.
Fiction book (1994) -
My daddy and mama are both large people, big-boned and heavy.
Fiction book (1998) -
"Tall and big-boned, that was the mark carried by our family," she would say with a certain pride.
Fiction book (1997) -
And she's a big-boned girl to begin with.
-
Ardis, on the other hand, was tall, big-boned, and regal.
Fiction book (2001) -
She's an attractive woman in her early 30s, big-boned and almost as tall as Clay.
Fiction book (1998) -
Mary McNamara is a big-boned, healthy-looking girl with long, reddish hair and clear blue eyes.
Fiction book (1993) -
The children's librarian is a big-boned African-American woman about ten years younger than Roberta.
Academic text (2007) -
Rita is not fat, she's just big-boned.
Synonyms
Larger than usual in size or amount
A person with a large, solid body and wide shoulders
Being large and heavy in size or build
Very big and heavy, often looking awkward or scary
Having a strong, solid body build
Antonyms
How Broad
- Informal
- US
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Big-boned comes from the simple English parts big and bone, and it literally means 'large bones'. A helpful way to remember it is to picture someone with a wide, strong bone frame, so big-boned describes a natural, broad body shape rather than just being overweight.