clean-limbed

English

WOTD – 23 January 2021

Etymology

From clean (“shapely, well-proportioned”) +‎ limbed (“having limbs of a specified kind or quality”, adjective).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkliːnˈlɪmd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌklinˈlɪmd/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

Adjective

clean-limbed (comparative more clean-limbed, superlative most clean-limbed)

1. (dated) Having a slender, athletic body; lithe.
   • 1898, Gertrude Atherton, chapter VI, in The Valiant Runaways, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 60:

     He was big and clean-limbed and sinewy, with small cunning eyes, a resolute mouth and chin, and an air of perfect fearlessness. Roldan warmed to him, and looked with admiration and envy at the muscles on his splendid limbs.

   • 1920 December, Wilber Wales Wheeler, “Angel Man”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LXXI, number 3, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1921, →OCLC, page 573, column 2:

     He was one of those clean-cut and clean-limbed men that young girls like to dream about—frank, honest, and with a keen sense of humor—for a man.

Translations

having a slender, athletic body — see also lithe

• Georgian: ტანადი (ṭanadi)

Further reading

• “clean-limbed, adj.” under “clean-, adj. and adv.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1889.
• “clean-limbed, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.