Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Stout \Stout\, a. [Compar. {Stouter}; superl. {Stoutest}.] [D.
   stout bold (or OF. estout bold, proud, of Teutonic origin);
   akin to AS. stolt, G. stolz, and perh. to E. stilt.]
   1. Strong; lusty; vigorous; robust; sinewy; muscular; hence,
      firm; resolute; dauntless.

            With hearts stern and stout.          --Chaucer.

            A stouter champion never handled sword. --Shak.

            He lost the character of a bold, stout, magnanimous
            man.                                  --Clarendon.

            The lords all stand To clear their cause, most
            resolutely stout.                     --Daniel.

   2. Proud; haughty; arrogant; hard. [Archaic]

            Your words have been stout against me. --Mal. iii.
                                                  13.

            Commonly . . . they that be rich are lofty and
            stout.                                --Latimer.

   3. Firm; tough; materially strong; enduring; as, a stout
      vessel, stick, string, or cloth.

   4. Large; bulky; corpulent.

   Syn: {Stout}, {Corpulent}, {Portly}.

   Usage: Corpulent has reference simply to a superabundance or
          excess of flesh. Portly implies a kind of stoutness or
          corpulence which gives a dignified or imposing
          appearance. Stout, in our early writers (as in the
          English Bible), was used chiefly or wholly in the
          sense of strong or bold; as, a stout champion; a stout
          heart; a stout resistance, etc. At a later period it
          was used for thickset or bulky, and more recently,
          especially in England, the idea has been carried still
          further, so that Taylor says in his Synonyms: ``The
          stout man has the proportions of an ox; he is
          corpulent, fat, and fleshy in relation to his size.''
          In America, stout is still commonly used in the
          original sense of strong as, a stout boy; a stout
          pole.