broad in the beam

English

Alternative forms

• broad across the beam, broad-beamed

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Adjective

broad in the beam

1. (nautical, of a ship) Wide across the hull.
   • 1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Baker Street Irregulars”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 145:

     Ah! She's not that old green launch with a yellow line, very broad in the beam?

2. (idiomatic, of a person, especially a female) Wide across the hips, with large buttocks.
   • 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 1, in Island Nights' Entertainments:

     [T]he women of Falesa are a handsome lot to see. If they have a fault, they are a trifle broad in the beam.

Translations

wide-hipped, having large buttocks

• Icelandic: hlaunamikill, hlaunabreiður
• Irish: másach

See also

• broad on the beam