English

Alternative forms

• broad across the beam

Adjective

broad in the beam

1. (nautical, of a ship) Wide across the hull.
   • 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four, ch. 8:

     "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, Island Nights' Entertainments, "The Beach of Falesa", ch. 1:

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

See also

• broad on the beam