Definition of "husky"

You look like a good, husky man to pitch in the barnyard […]

1910, Hamlin Garland, Other Main-Travelled Roads

Word got around quickly that this plane, which has been flying since January, is bigger and huskier than our proposed C-5A […]

1965, Popular Mechanics, September issue, page 22

Some swains have sown before: but most have foundA husky harvest from the grudging ground.

1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

“Well, here it is,” said Silver. “We want that treasure, and we’ll have it — that’s our point! You would just as soon save your lives, I reckon; and that’s yours. You have a chart, haven’t you?”“That’s as may be,” replied the captain.“Oh, well, you have, I know that,” returned Long John. “You needn’t be so husky with a man; there ain’t a particle of service in that, and you may lay to it. What I mean is, we want your chart. Now, I never meant you no harm, myself.”

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883