buxom
- 1Of a woman, having a full, voluptuous figure, especially one with large breasts.
The costume designer let out the bodice for the buxom actress playing the innkeeper's wife.
She had been buxom since high school and was tired of blouses that gaped between the buttons.
UsageIt can sound too personal or leering because it draws attention to a woman's body.
Similarcurvy, busty, voluptuous, curvaceous, shapely
Oppositeflat-chested, slender, skinny, thin
Note
Today the word describes a woman's figure, as in Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961). It takes in the whole shape, where busty and chesty point only at the bust. It compares either way, buxomer or more buxom, and it has traveled far from the original "obedient" meaning: the old word amounts to bow, "to bend," plus -some.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Joseph Heller wrote Catch-22, first published in 1961. simonandschuster.net
- Catch-22 uses buxom to describe a woman. en.wiktionary.org
- Both buxomer and more buxom are comparative forms. en.wiktionary.org
- The word originally had the meaning obedient. en.wiktionary.org
- The historical formation is equivalent to bow, meaning to bend, plus -some. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Full of health and vigor, and of a cheerful, good-natured temper.
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”Similarvigorous
Note
An older, sunnier meaning that a modern reader easily mistakes for the full-figured sense. When Milton's L'Allegro calls a fair daughter "so buxom, blithe, and debonair", it praises her spirits, and John Buchan's The Gap in the Curtain (1932) gives the word to a bubbling male novelist. Company such as blithe, brave or lively usually marks this sense; used today, it will be heard as the modern one.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- Buxom has an older meaning involving health, vigor, and good temper. en.wiktionary.org
- Milton's L'Allegro describes a fair daughter as buxom, blithe, and debonair; the quotation is accurate in modernized spelling. gutenberg.org
- Milton uses buxom in the sense of lively spirits. en.wiktionary.org
- John Buchan wrote The Gap in the Curtain, first published in 1932. gutenberg.net.au
- Buchan's novel describes a male novelist, Claypole, as buxom and gives him bubbling utterances. gutenberg.net.au
- Claypole's speech is described as bubbling. gutenberg.net.au
- 3Yielding rather than resisting; flexible in body or obedient in mind.
Note
Obedience was once something the word could praise. In Book VI of Spenser's Faerie Queene (1596), a knight's attackers are likened to men binding a steer until they force him "the buxom yoke to bear": the yoke of submission, the adjective passing from the one who yields to what he yields to. The sense lasted longer than one might guess: the Victorian bishop Connop Thirlwall ends a scolding in a letter hoping its reader will be "buxom and good", meaning dutiful, not plump.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 8 facts
- Buxom formerly meant obedient or compliant and could express approval. en.wiktionary.org
- The Faerie Queene first appeared in 1590. Books IV–VI, including this passage in VI.viii.12, first appeared in 1596; specify Book VI to make the date accurate. celm.folger.edu
- The quoted lines describe a ploughman and his helper binding a steer, in a simile comparing their actions with the captors' treatment of a knight. The original spelling is "the buxome yoke to beare". en.wikisource.org
- Buxom is transferred to the yoke as an instrument of submission. en.wikisource.org
- Connop Thirlwall was a Victorian bishop. en.wikipedia.org
- Thirlwall wrote the words "buxom and good" in a letter. upload.wikimedia.org
- They conclude his admonitory passage, called his "New Year's Lecture". The letter continues with news about children visiting and singers. upload.wikimedia.org
- Thirlwall means compliant or dutiful, rather than plump. upload.wikimedia.org
Use it in a sentence
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Origin
The word goes back to Proto-West Germanic *beuhsam, *beugsam, which gave bōcsum, *būhsum, *ġebūhsum in Old English ("pliant, obedient") and then Middle English buxom (also ibucsum, ibuhsum), meaning "flexible, pliant, obedient." It can be seen as bow ("to bend") plus -some, or as buck ("to bend, buckle") plus -some. Scots bowsome ("compliant") is related, as are West Frisian bûgsum, Dutch buigzaam, and German biegsam, which all mean "flexible."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Buxom descends through Middle English and Old English from the listed Proto-West Germanic forms, with the stated historical meanings. en.wiktionary.org
- The word can be analyzed as bow plus -some or buck plus -some, with the stated bending senses. en.wiktionary.org
- Scots bowsome is related and means compliant. en.wiktionary.org
- West Frisian bûgsum is related and means flexible. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch buigzaam is related and means flexible. en.wiktionary.org
- German biegsam is related and means flexible. en.wiktionary.org