hardbody

English

Etymology

hard +‎ body

Noun

hardbody (plural hardbodies)

1. An attractive body enhanced through weightlifting.
   • 2003, Phillip Oppenheim, Maggie to Margaritas:

     "This town's stuffed with A-list hardbody superbabes," he confided in me — "Idaho farm girls, preacher's daughters from Ohio, Alabama college girls — every last cute-assed one of them wants to be an actress.

   • 2008, Laurie Channer, Godblog, Dundurn, →ISBN, page 68:

     No hardbody, Maria's was a soft, squishy middle, probably from a few too many whipped cream indulgences on shift.

   • 2011, Jeffrey A. Brown, Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender, Fetishism, and Popular Culture, Univ. Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 25:

     Certainly the action heroine is often filmed to accentuate her body, but this new hardbody is not offered up as a mere sexual commodity. While the well-toned muscular female body is obviously an ideal in this age of physical fitness, it is presented in these films as first and foremost a functional body, a weapon. ... Where once stood silicone-injected breasts and delicate shoulders, now stands ripped pecs and striated delts.

   • 2014, James Kendrick, Darkness in the Bliss-Out: A Reconsideration of the Films of Steven Spielberg, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 115:

     The “hardbody film,” a term that was first coined by Susan Jeffords, is defined by Drew Ayers as: ... What is unique to this cycle of films is the focus on the body of the male hero, a body that is fetishized for its hard and sculpted muscularity and/or its athletic skill and physical prowess.

Adjective

hardbody (not comparable)

1. (Africa) Designating a kind of large, tough chicken with strong bones.