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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stout \Stout\ (stout), adjective [Compar. {Stouter} (stout"[~e]r); superl. {Stoutest}.] [D. stout bold (or OF. estout bold, proud, of Teutonic origin); akin to AS. stolt, G. stolz, and perh. to E. stilt.]
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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