different between brawny vs thickset

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b???ni/

Adjective

brawny (comparative brawnier, superlative brawniest)

1. Characterized by brawn; muscular, thewy; strong.
   • 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 68:

2. Calloused; hardened.

Derived terms

• brawnily
• brawniness

Translations

Middle English

Etymology

From brawne +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?brau?ni?/

Adjective

brawny

1. muscular, muscly
2. (rare) fleshy (of fruit)

Descendants

• English: brawny

References

• “braun?, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

English

Etymology

thick +? set

Alternative forms

• thick-set

Adjective

thickset (comparative more thickset, superlative most thickset)

1. Having a relatively short, heavy build.

   Synonyms: big-boned, stocky, stout

   Antonyms: sleek, slender, slim, svelte, willowy

   • 1654, Samuel Clarke, The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, London: T.V., “The Life of Theodore Beza,” p. 885,^[2]

     He was a thick set man, and of a strong Constitution […]

   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, London: J. Osborn, Volume 1, Chapter 8, p. 52,^[3]

     […] he directed me to a small chink in the board partition, through which I could see a thick set brawny fellow, with a fierce countenance,

   • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book 4, Chapter 41,^[4]

     The contrast was as striking as it could have been eighteen years before, when Rigg was a most unengaging kickable boy, and Raffles was the rather thick-set Adonis of bar-rooms and back-parlors.

   • 1926, Nalbro Bartley, Her Mother’s Daughter, New York: George H. Doran, Chapter 1,^[5]

     More than ever Min hated her own thickset, healthy body, her round, red face with its small gray eyes, the mop of auburn hair which Aunt Julie braided so tightly […]

   • 1970, Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Penguin, 1977, Chapter 6, p. 279,^[6]

     Things edible would always be respected by a man who had nearly starved to death. The laborers, too, in white smocks, broad and heavy, a thickset personnel, butchers’ men.

2. Densely crowded together; made up of things that are densely crowded together; closely planted.

   Synonyms: dense, thick

   Antonyms: sparse, thin

   • 1581, Thomas Newton (translator), Thebais in Seneca His Tenne Tragedies, London: Thomas Marsh, Act 2, p. 48,^[7]

     […] let me be allowde

     To lurke behinde this Craggy Rocke, or els my selfe to hyde

     On backside of some thickset hedge:

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, London: M. Lownes et al., Song 1, p. 11,^[8]

     […] Corineus ran

     With slaughter through the thick-set squadrons of the foes;

   • 1635, John Taylor, The olde, old, very olde man: or the age and long life of Thomas Par, London: Henry Gosson,^[9]

     […] though his Beard not oft corrected,

     Yet neare it growes, not like a Beard neglected

     From head to heele, his body hath all over,

     A Quick-set, Thick-set nat’rall hairy cover.

   • 1696, Jane Leade, A Fountain of Gardens, London, “Solomon’s Porch: or the Beautiful Gate of Wisdom’s Temple,”^[10]

     The beauteous Love-Eye burning in the Heart;

     From whence Loves Centres endless multiply,

     As thick-set Spangles of the Sky,

     Raising a Sting of Joy in ev’ry Part.

   • 1700, John Dryden (translator), “Meleager and Atalanta, Out of the Eighth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphosis” in Fables Ancient and Modern, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 106,^[11]

     His [the boar’s] Neck shoots up a thick-set thorny Wood;

     His bristled Back a Trench impal’d appears,

     And stands erected, like a Field of Spears.

   • 1862, Christina Rossetti, “A Birthday” in Goblin Market and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, p. 56,^[12]

     My heart is like an appletree

     Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;

   • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, Chapter 77,

     It was for the arc of lanterned boats to close in and to form the thickset audience, armed and impenetrable.

3. Densely covered (with something).
   • 1583, John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, London: John Day, Book 4, “The tragicall historie of Gregorie the vij. otherwise named Hildebrand,” p. 177,^[13]

     […] in a vessell being thick set with sharpe nayles, he tormented him to the poynt of death:

   • 1660, Nathaniel Ingelo, Bentivolio and Urania, London: Richard Marriot, Book 3, p. 134,^[14]

     The sides of the Church were so thick set with Pictures, that it seem’d to be made in imitation of Plato’s Den, where one could see nothing but shadowes.

   • 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 4,^[15]

     A huge cherry-tree grew outside, so close that its boughs tapped against the house, and it was so thick-set with blossoms that hardly a leaf was to be seen.

   • 1929, Carl Grabo, The Cat in Grand-Father’s House, Chicago: Laidlaw Brothers, Chapter 7, p. 99,^[16]

     […] he came to the house of the King of the Gnomes, which was inside a mountain and as thickset with jewels as the grass with dew on a fine morning.

Synonyms

• (stout, fat): See also Thesaurus:obese

Translations

Noun

thickset (countable and uncountable, plural thicksets)

1. (countable, obsolete) A thick hedge.
   • 1858, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (as Pisistratus Caxton), What Will He Do with It? Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, Volume 4, Book 11, Chapter 7, p. 294,^[17]

     Had Darrell been placed amidst the circumstances that make happy the homes of earnest men, Darrell would have been mirthful; had Waife been placed amongst the circumstances that concentrate talent, and hedge round life with trained thicksets and belting laurels, Waife would have been grave.

2. (uncountable, historical) A stout, twilled cotton cloth; a fustian corduroy, or velveteen.
   • 1812, George Crabbe, Tales, London: J. Hatchard, Tale 4, “Procrastination,” p. 73,^[18]

     When he, with thickset coat of Badge-man’s blue,

     Moves near her shaded silk of changeful hue;

   • 1829, anonymous contributor, “A Day at Fontainebleau.—The Royal Hunt,” The Monthly Magazine, New Series, Volume 7, No. 37, January 1829, p. 12,^[19]

     His breeches were of the homeliest thickset;

3. (countable, historical) A piece of clothing made from this fabric.
   • 1785, John Trusler, Modern Times: or the Adventures of Gabriel Outcast, London: for the author, Volume 2, Chapter 17, p. 27,^[20]

     […] his coat was originally what is called a thickset, but out at the elbows;

   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, Chapter 1,^[21]

     I had observed that our landlord wore, on that memorable morning, a pair of bran new velveteens instead of his ancient thicksets.

References

Anagrams

• sticketh, thickest, thickets