VIGOROUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does vigorous mean? 

• VIGOROUS (adjective)
  The adjective VIGOROUS has 2 senses:

1. characterized by forceful and energetic action or activity

2. strong and active physically or mentally

  Familiarity information: VIGOROUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VIGOROUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by forceful and energetic action or activity

Context example:

vigorous opposition to the war

Similar:

energetic (possessing or exerting or displaying energy)

Derivation:

vigor (active strength of body or mind)

vigor (forceful exertion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strong and active physically or mentally

Context example:

a vigorous old man who spent half of his day on horseback

Similar:

robust (sturdy and strong in form, constitution, or construction)

Derivation:

vigor (active strength of body or mind)

vigor (forceful exertion)

 Context examples 

The authors note current NHS guidelines recommend 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week for adults (or 150 minutes of moderate activity).

(Reduce Risk of Early Death with Any Amount of Running, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

For each 10-minute increase in moderate-to-vigorous activity per week, glaucoma risk decreased 25 percent.

(Another Reason to Exercise: Protecting Your Sight, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Vigorous and healthy, but high incidence of physical abnormalities.

(IR, Rat Strain, NCI Thesaurus)

And for the rest, though you have a man's vigorous brain, you have a woman's heart and—it would not do.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Perhaps the abilities of women are neither sound nor acute—neither vigorous nor keen.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

“No doubt, my dear Jane,” returned my mother, “your understanding is very vigorous—”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To this Cherokee responded by vigorous wagging of the stump of his tail.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Remarkably, the older brain cells were rejuvenated, and began to behave like the younger, more vigorous cells.

(Cambridge scientists reverse ageing process in rat brain stem cells, University of Cambridge)

He meets his death five miles from the school—not by a bullet, mark you, which even a lad might conceivably discharge, but by a savage blow dealt by a vigorous arm.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With swift, vigorous propulsion of hands and feet, he lifted his shoulders and half his chest out of water.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)