These words refer to strong, heavy, powerfully built or masculine physiques. Husky refers to masculine muscularity. It derives from husk, referring to the tough covering shell of a seed; also its other uses pertaining to dryness, roughness or hoarseness give connotations here. While the word suggests largeness of frame, it is more emphatic about the strength or muscular density of physique, particularly of the torso, with suggestions of coarseness or toughness. Thus, it serves as an antonym to lithe or supple and implies instead a possibly slower-moving but more powerful body: the lithe physique best for runners and tennis players as compared to the husky builds required for wrestling or shot-put.

Brawny and burly both intensify the emphasis of husky on massive or dense muscular development, suggesting in these cases a grossness of build beyond that of any well-proportioned and cleanly defined athletic ideal. Burly may carry connotations over from another word, identical in form, that refers to the knots and burls of a tree, in this case suggesting a thick bunching of muscles that may verge on the grotesque; an overall thickness of frame, at an rate, is implied, with suggestions of coarse or crude power that are even stronger than those for husky : the burly , lumbering wharf labourer with the thick bullneck and barrel-shaped chest. Brawny is less extreme in its implications than burly, emphasizing instead the sheer power inherent in muscular development. Where husky may particularly point to a developed torso, brawny suggests general muscular density, such as acquired by hard physical labour: a brawny axeman.

Beefy points to muscular masses but, unlike the previous words, need not indicate power or density. The word can in fact suggest a fleshy grossness that may be repellent or flabby: the dance hall’s beefy bouncer. Hulking and stocky both suggest sheer size or largeness of frame rather than pointing primarily to muscular development. Hulking particularly indicates a tall or looming male build: a hulking basketball player. Stocky , by contrast, emphasizes largeness rather than tallness of frame: a stocky publican almost as wide as he was tall. Even more than husky , this word can be used euphemistically for a fat or heavy body: a reducing clinic for stocky executives. Strapping combines the suggestions of sheer size in the last pair with the stress on muscular development in the first group. The word is often used to indicate precocious growth and development in boys or young men: a strapping , blond surfie.