Meanings
comparative more clean-limbed · superlative most clean-limbed
- datedHaving a slender, athletic body; lithe.
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.
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 21 more example
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.
1898, Gertrude Atherton, chapter VI, in The Valiant Runaways, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 60
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivehaving well-proportioned limbs
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From clean (“shapely, well-proportioned”) + limbed (“having limbs of a specified kind or quality”, adjective).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
clean-limbed. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clean-limbed
“clean-limbed.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clean-limbed. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “clean-limbed,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clean-limbed.
Source: clean-limbed on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.