Dictionary

buxom en · ADJ

Pronunciation

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• /ˈbʌksəm/

Etymology

From Middle English buxom, also ibucsum, ibuhsum (“bendsome, flexible, pliant, obedient”), from Old English bōcsum, *būhsum, *ġebūhsum (“bendsome, pliant, obedient”), from Proto-West Germanic *beuhsam, *beugsam, equivalent to bow (“to bend, bow at the waist”) + -some or buck (“to bend, buckle, kick”) + -some. Cognate with Scots bowsome (“compliant”), West Frisian bûgsum (“flexible, bendy”), Dutch buigzaam (“flexible, pliant”), German biegsam (“flexible, pliant”).

Meanings

1. (of a woman) Having a full, voluptuous figure, especially possessing large breasts.
   • Aarfy's buxom trollop had vanished with her smutty cameo ring, and Nurse Duckett was ashamed of him because he had refused to fly more combat missions and would cause a scandal. 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 433:
   • DIED. Robert Brooks, 69, canny businessman who, as chairman of Hooters, turned the bar-restaurant chain, famed for buxom waitresses in orange hot pants, into an international success. 2003 July 23, “Milestones”, in TIME, archived from the original on 23 Jun 2008:
2. (dated) Full of health, vigour, and good temper.
   • Claypole, the buxom novelist,...[his] bubbling utterances.... 1932, John Buchan, chapter IV, in The Gap in the Curtain:
   • He had not seen Zilla since Paul had shot her, and he still pictured her as buxom, high-colored, lively, and a little blowsy. 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “26”, in Babbitt:
   • So heated and impassioned, indeed, would they become, that the lady hardly felt herself safe in their company at such times, notwithstanding that she was a brave and buxom damsel, not easily put out, and with a daring spirit of humour in her composition. 1896, Thomas Hardy, “Dame the Eighth: The Lady Penelope”, in A Group of Noble Dames:
   • There on Beds of Violets blew, / And freſh-blown Roſes waſht in dew, / Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair, / So buckſom, blith, and debonair. a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 31:
3. (obsolete) Physically flexible or unresisting.
   • Their substance is of a middle Nature betwixt bones and gristles moderately hard, the better to beare the violence of outward iniures, flexible or buxome that they should not breake but giue way to violence, pellucide or transparant and therefore they are either red or liuid according to their flesh vnder them. 1615, Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia:
4. (broadly, obsolete) Morally pliant; obedient and easily yielding to pressure.
   • They downe him hold, and fast with cords do bynde, / Till they him force the buxome yoke to beare […]. 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.8::
   • You will certainly be rewarded for this improvement in your conduct by a notable increase of tranquillity and cheerfulness in your view both of the past and of the future; and in the hope that you will be buxom and good, I conclude by New Year's lecture. 1869, Newell Connop Thirlwall, Letters:

Forms

Deriveds

buxomness · buxomly · unbuxom

Synonyms

vigorous · curvy · curvesome · busty · chubby · malleable · full-throated · plump · well-endowed · gay · buxom · voluptuous · plastic · thicc · well-proportioned · juicy · chesty · thick · sensual · Rubenesque · red-hot · full-figured · bosomy · curvaceous · luscious · embonpoint · pneumatic · compliant · big-breasted · built · toothsome · flexible · tractable · zaftig · sonsy · pliant · shapely · pliable · round

Translations (48)

sv frodig (having a full, voluptuous figure) · it prosperosa (having a full, voluptuous figure) · sv bystig (having a full, voluptuous figure) · es pechugona (having a full, voluptuous figure) · hi मोटी f or गुदगुदी f शरीर की (having a full, voluptuous figure) · cs kyprá (having a full, voluptuous figure) · de drall (having a full, voluptuous figure) · ru полногру́дая (having a full, voluptuous figure) · ro țâțoasă (having a full, voluptuous figure) · hu telt (having a full, voluptuous figure) · sv yppig (having a full, voluptuous figure) · eo abunda (having a full, voluptuous figure) · da barmfager (having a full, voluptuous figure) · fr bien en chair (having a full, voluptuous figure) · fi povekas (having a full, voluptuous figure) · tr dolgun (having a full, voluptuous figure) · fi isorintainen (having a full, voluptuous figure) · el ζωηρός (having a full, voluptuous figure) · pt peituda (having a full, voluptuous figure) · ro pieptoasă (having a full, voluptuous figure) · ceb bigot (having a full, voluptuous figure) · fi rintava (having a full, voluptuous figure) · ceb mamords (having a full, voluptuous figure) · ro durduliu (having a full, voluptuous figure) · es turgente (having a full, voluptuous figure) · es maciza (having a full, voluptuous figure) · id montok (having a full, voluptuous figure) · el ελκυστικός (having a full, voluptuous figure) · zh 凹凸有致 (having a full, voluptuous figure) · gd lìonta (having a full, voluptuous figure) · it formosa (having a full, voluptuous figure) · no yppig (having a full, voluptuous figure) · gd thiugh (having a full, voluptuous figure) · cs vnadná (having a full, voluptuous figure) · gv roauyr (having a full, voluptuous figure) · it tettona (having a full, voluptuous figure) · cs krev a mlíko (o ženě) (having a full, voluptuous figure) · fi rehevä (having a full, voluptuous figure) · nl rondborstig (having a full, voluptuous figure) · gd mhaiseach (having a full, voluptuous figure) · el όμορφος (having a full, voluptuous figure) · cs vyvinutá (having a full, voluptuous figure) · de vollbusig (having a full, voluptuous figure) · fo prúður (having a full, voluptuous figure) · bg пълногръ́д (having a full, voluptuous figure) · pt tetuda (having a full, voluptuous figure) · cs baculatá (having a full, voluptuous figure) · es tetona (having a full, voluptuous figure)