a. and sb. Also enbonpoint. [F. embonpoint: f. phrase en bon point ‘in good condition.’] Now chiefly with reference to women.
A. sb. Plumpness, well-nourished appearance of body: in complimentary or euphemistic sense.
1751. Warburton, in Pope, Mor. Ess., IV. 47, Wks. 1751, III. 272. To take care that the … colours are proportioned to her complexion; the stuff to the embonpoint of her person.
1807. Z. Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), III. App. 35. They are all inclining a little to enbonpoint.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xi. 162. A form decidedly inclined to embonpoint.
1876. Bartholow, Mat. Med. (1879), 343. An increase in the body-weight and the embonpoint of those who take stimulants.
B. as predicative adj. Plump, well-nourished-looking [In Fr. only as phrase en bon point.]
[1662. Evelyn, Sculptura, I. i. (1755), 18. Plump & (as the French has it) en bon point.]
c. 1806. Sir R. Wilson, in Life (1862), I. App. 372. Before marriage they are generally light in figure; after they are mothers they become more embonpoint.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxvii. Her form, though rather embonpoint, was nevertheless graceful.
