corpulent, a.
(ˈkɔːpjʊlənt)
Also 5–6 -olent.
[a. F. corpulent, ad. L. corpulent-us, f. corpus body: see -ulent.]
† 1. Of the nature of a physical or material body: solid, dense, gross. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiv. i. (Tollem. MS.) Amonge bodies þe erþe is most corpulent [corpulentissimum] and haþ leste of sotilte. 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 20 The bodie of the Vertebre is the corpulent and grosse parte therof. 1579 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 84 [The] winde..enterith..every place..not alreddie fulfilled with sum other corpulent bodye. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 116 Meat being in its own nature corpulent..and grosse. |
2. Large or bulky of body; fleshy, fat.
| c 1440 Gesta Rom. lxv. 281 (Harl. MS.) He was corpulent and hevy. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. clviii. 147 Bernulphus knyghtes were fatte, corpolent, and shorte breth. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 464 A goodly portly man yfaith, and a corpulent. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. xxii. 242 He could not endure a corpulent souldier. 1706 Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 301 He was a great Fat, Corpulent Fellow. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 66 Being rather too corpulent to dance. 1868 Peard Water-farm. xii. 116 The good brothers..looked anxiously at many a corpulent carp. |
| transf. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 441 Some call it the bodie, or corpulent vessell, or the gourd. 1884 Illust. Lond. News 27 Sept. 291/3 A work in two corpulent quarto volumes. |
† 3. Corporeal; material.
Obs. [So L.
corpulentus in Tertullian.]
| a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. i. xii. §3 (1622) 127 Sometimes certaine Spirits (though not corpulent, nor palpable) doe compasse round about vs. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. iii. (1851) 158 How can the minister of the Gospel manage the corpulent and secular trial of bill and processe in things meerly spiritual? 1643 Hammond Serm. vii. Wks. 1684 IV. 516 To think anything pleasure which is not corpulent, and carnal. |