Stout a. [Compar. Stouter superl. Stoutest.]
 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.
 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.
 3. Firm; tough; materially strong; enduring; as, a stout vessel, stick, string, or cloth.
 4. Large; bulky; corpulent.
 Syn: -- Stout, Corpulent, Portly.
 Usage: 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.

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