Definition of "brawn"

The man was a bruiser, the sort who'd learned his science in tavern brawls. Given his size and lack of agility, he relied on his brawn to win. In any wrestling match, Crowley would triumph easily.

2000, Stephanie Laurens, A Secret Love, Avon Books, published 2000, page 349

The two men were husky, picked for their brawn by the little man who sauntered into the room.

2008, Michael Mandaville, Stealing Thunder, Dog Ear Publishing, published 2008, page 562

The youth agreed to the scheme and used his brawn to begin moving pieces into place, starting by moving the planet Rann into the Thanagarian star system […]

2010, Martin Pasko, Robert Greenberger, The Essential Superman Encyclopedia, Del Ray, published 2010, page 218

Now if your Majesty would have our bristlesTo bind your mortar with, or fill our colonsWith rich blood, or make brawn out of our gristles,In policy—ask else your royal Solons—You ought to give us hog-wash and clean straw,And sties well thatched; besides it is the law!

1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts

It was brawn and shape for high tea.

1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 111

And loud as brawns wer [they] snoring,

1821, John Stagg, The Cumbrian Minstrel: Being a Poetical Miscellany

THE village of Brancepath, pleasantly situated at the distance of four miles and three- quarters south-west by west of Durham, is said to have derived its name (a corruption of Brawn's-path) from a brawn of vast size, [...]

1842, Moses Aaron Richardson, The Borderer's Table Book: Or, Gatherings of the Local History