buxom

Alternative forms

• bucksome

Etymology

From Middle English buxum, buhsum (“bendsome, flexible, pliant, obedient”), from Old English *būhsum (“bendsome, pliant”), a derivative of Old English būgan (“to bend, bow”), equivalent to bow +‎ -some. Cognate with Dutch buigzaam (“flexible, pliant”), German biegsam (“flexible, pliant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʌksəm/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

buxom (comparative buxomer or more buxom, superlative buxomest or most buxom)

1. (of a woman) Having a full, voluptuous figure, especially possessing large breasts.
   • 2003, "Milestones," Time, 23 Jul.,

     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.

2. (dated, of a woman) Healthy, lively.
   • 1896, Thomas Hardy, A Group of Noble Dames, "Dame the Eighth: The Lady Penelope,"

     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.

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “26”, in Babbitt:

     He had not seen Zilla since Paul had shot her, and he still pictured her as buxom, high-colored, lively, and a little blowsy.

3. (dated, of a man or woman) Cheerful, lively, happy.
   • 1932, John Buchan, chapter IV, in The Gap in the Curtain:

     Claypole, the buxom novelist,...[his] bubbling utterances....

4. (obsolete) Flexible, pliant.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.8:

     They downe him hold, and fast with cords do bynde, / Till they him force the buxome yoke to beare […].

References

• “buxom” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.