fat
(făt)n.
1.
a. The ester of glycerol and one, two, or three fatty acids.
b. Any of various soft, solid, or semisolid organic compounds constituting the esters of glycerol and fatty acids and their associated organic groups.
c. A mixture of such compounds occurring widely in organic tissue, especially in the adipose tissue of animals and in the seeds, nuts, and fruits of plants.
d. Animal tissue containing such substances.
e. A solidified animal or vegetable oil.
2. Obesity; corpulence: health risks associated with fat.
3. Unnecessary excess: "would drain the appropriation's fat without cutting into education's muscle" (New York Times).
adj. fat·ter, fat·test
1. Having much or too much fat or flesh; plump or obese.
2. Full of fat or oil; greasy.
3. Abounding in desirable elements: a paycheck fat with bonus money.
4. Fertile or productive; rich: "It was a fine, green, fat landscape" (Robert Louis Stevenson).
5. Having an abundance or amplitude; well-stocked: a fat larder.
6.
a. Yielding profit or plenty; lucrative or rewarding: a fat promotion.
b. Prosperous; wealthy: grew fat on illegal profits.
7.
a. Thick; large: a fat book.
b. Puffed up; swollen: a fat lip.
tr. & intr.v. fat·ted, fat·ting, fats
Idioms: To make or become fat; fatten.
a fat lot Slang
Very little or none at all: a fat lot of good it will do him.
fat chance Slang
Very little or no chance.
the fat is in the fire
Bad consequences are sure to follow; trouble lies ahead.
the fat of the land
Desirable resources, especially when acquired with little effort: I fantasized about buying a farm and living off the fat of the land.
fat′ly adv.
fat′ness n.
Synonyms: fat, overweight, obese, corpulent, portly, stout, pudgy, rotund, plump1, chubby
These adjectives mean having an abundance and often an excess of flesh. Fat implies more weight than one desires or than is considered desirable by social norms: was getting fat and decided to exercise. Overweight conveys the sense that the weight is above a medical standard for age or height and may be unhealthy: oversized garments for overweight customers. Another word with medical connotations, obese means grossly overweight: "a woman of robust frame ... though stout, not obese" (Charlotte Brontë).
While corpulent also refers to conspicuous body weight, it is not always as judgmental a term as obese: the corpulent figure of the seated Buddha. Portly refers to bulk combined with a stately or imposing bearing: A portly guard blocked the doorway. Stout denotes a thickset, bulky figure: a painting of stout peasants. Pudgy means short and fat: pudgy fingers. Rotund refers to the roundness of figure associated with a spreading midsection: "this pink-faced rotund specimen of prosperity" (George Eliot).
Plump and chubby apply to a pleasing fullness of figure: a plump little toddler; chubby cheeks.
These adjectives mean having an abundance and often an excess of flesh. Fat implies more weight than one desires or than is considered desirable by social norms: was getting fat and decided to exercise. Overweight conveys the sense that the weight is above a medical standard for age or height and may be unhealthy: oversized garments for overweight customers. Another word with medical connotations, obese means grossly overweight: "a woman of robust frame ... though stout, not obese" (Charlotte Brontë).
While corpulent also refers to conspicuous body weight, it is not always as judgmental a term as obese: the corpulent figure of the seated Buddha. Portly refers to bulk combined with a stately or imposing bearing: A portly guard blocked the doorway. Stout denotes a thickset, bulky figure: a painting of stout peasants. Pudgy means short and fat: pudgy fingers. Rotund refers to the roundness of figure associated with a spreading midsection: "this pink-faced rotund specimen of prosperity" (George Eliot).
Plump and chubby apply to a pleasing fullness of figure: a plump little toddler; chubby cheeks.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Fatness
See Also: BODY, INSULTS, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
- Blew up like a poisoned dog —Rita Mae Brown
The simile refers to a character in the novel, Southern Discomfort, who became fat after having a child.
- Body … encased in fat, like an insulated boiler —A. Alvarez
- Body plump as a church rat’s —Honoré de Balzac
- Broad as a barn door —John Heywood’s Proverbs
A shorter, modern version: “Broad as a door.”
- (At the hips … she was) broad as a sofa —Saul Bellow
- Corpulent as a fire plug —Samuel Shem Fine
- Fat and sleek: a dumpling —D. H. Lawrence
- Fat as a balloon —Mark Twain
- Fat as a duck —John Adams
The man Adams compared to a duck was Aaron Burr.
- Fat as a fool —John Lyly
- Fat as an owl —Miles Gibson
- Fat as a pig —John Cotgrave
This is probably the most famous and often used “Fat as” comparison. Its earliest version “Fat as a pork hog” appeared in Sir Thomas Mallory’s Morte d’Arthur. An offshoot, “Fat as a hen in the forehead,” has been variously attributed to the playwrights Beaumont and Fletcher, and Jonathan Swift.
- (I shall grow) fat as a porpoise —Jonathan Swift
- Fat as a whale —Geoffrey Chaucer
- Fat as butter —William Shakespeare
A variation which has become an American colloquialism is “Fat as a butter-ball.”
- Fat as plenty —Hugh Ward
- The fat on her was like loose-powdered dough —Carson McCullers
- Fat overflowed not only from her jowl to her neck, but from her ankles to her shoes … she looked like a pudding that had risen too high and run down the sides of the dish —Nadine Gordimer
- (He was) fattening like a Christmas goose —Calder Willingham
- Grew fat as a broiler —Kate Wheeler
- He was fat, with a belly creased like a roll when he bent over —John Gunther
- His stomach swells like a big cake baking —Carolyn Chute
- I was square and looked like a refrigerator approaching —Jean Kerr
Kerr likened herself to a refrigerator when she was pregnant.
- Pudgy as a baby’s hand —Jonathan Valin
- Plump as an abbot —Robert Traver
- Plump as a partridge —John Ray’s Proverbs
- She was round and plump as her favorite teapot —Peter De Vries
- Stout as a stump —James Crumley
- (Piglets) stout as jugs —W. D. Snodgrass
- (A short man) wide as a door —Jessamyn West
- A youngish plump little body, rather like a pigeon —Katherine Mansfield
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
fatness
The following words can all be used to describe someone who has a lot of flesh on their body:
| beefy | big | broad | bulky | buxom |
| chubby | chunky | corpulent | cuddly | dumpy |
| fat | flabby | fleshy | gross | heavy |
| heavyset (Am) | obese | overweight | plump | podgy |
| portly | pudgy | solid | squat | stocky |
| stout | thick-set | tubby | well-built |
1. neutral words
Big, broad, bulky, chunky, corpulent, fleshy, heavy, heavyset, plump, stocky, stout, and thick-set are fairly neutral words.
How tall was he? Thin or heavyset?
Stout prosperous men converged on the hotel.
...the portrait of a plump, dark girl, the Colonel's daughter.
2. 'big' and 'stocky'
You use big to describe someone who is tall and has quite a lot of flesh.
Zabeth was a big woman with a dark complexion.
You use stocky to describe someone who is fairly short and has quite a lot of flesh.
His friend was a stocky, bald man in his late forties.
3. polite words
Beefy, buxom, chubby, cuddly, portly, solid, tubby, and well-built are words that you use when you like the person you are describing and think their shape is quite attractive. Beefy, cuddly, and tubby are used in conversation.
His relatives were all solid, well-built people with dark or gray curly hair.
Buxom is used only to describe women.
...the buxom ladies in Rubens' paintings.
Chubby is used mainly of babies and children. Portly is used mainly of people who are middle-aged and rather dignified.
Janice was a chubby child but she really started to pile on weight at 12.
...a portly gentleman in his late fifties.
4. 4 impolite words
Dumpy, fat, flabby, gross, obese, overweight, podgy, pudgy, and squat are considered impolite and should not be used when speaking to the person you are describing, or to someone who knows and likes them.
He'll get fat, the way he eats.
He doesn't do anything physical. So he must be flabby and unfit.
Laura was hugely overweight.
Obese and overweight are also used in more technical contexts.
Really obese children tend to grow up into obese men and women.
Overweight people run a slightly higher risk of cancer than people of average weight.
People who are dumpy or squat are both short and fat.
She was a little woman, and would probably, one day, be a dumpy one.
Be Careful!
Wide is used to describe things, not people.
...the wide staircase leading down to the hall.
Be Careful!
However, it can be used to describe parts of the body.
Her features were coarse -- a wide forehead, a large nose, prominent cheekbones.
She had a wide mouth that smiled a great deal.
Collins COBUILD English Usage © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 2004, 2011, 2012
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
| Noun | 1. |  fatness - excess bodily weight; "she disliked fatness in herself as well as in others"bodily property - an attribute of the body adiposeness, adiposity, fattiness - having the property of containing fat; "he recommended exercise to reduce my adiposity" abdominousness, paunchiness - the bodily property of a protruding belly corpulency, fleshiness - more than average fatness steatopygia - an extreme accumulation of fat on the buttocks |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
fatness
noun obesity, corpulence, podginess, flab, size, weight, beef (informal), flesh, overweight, girth, weight problem, heaviness, grossness, embonpoint (French), rotundity, fleshiness, stoutness, bulkiness Body weight alone says little about body fatness.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations
سُمْنَه
tloušťkatučnost
fedme
gildleiki, feitlagni
şişmanlık
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
fatness
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
fat
(fӕt) noun1. an oily substance made by the bodies of animals and by some plants. This meat has got a lot of fat on it.
2. a kind of such substance, used especially for cooking. There are several good cooking fats on the market.
adjective1. having a lot of fat on one's body; large, heavy and round in shape. He was a very fat child.
2. large or abundant. Her business made a fat profit; A fat lot of good that is! (= That is no good at all)
ˈfatness nounˈfatten verb
(often with up) to make or become fat. They are fattening up a turkey to eat at Christmas.
ˈfatty adjective containing, or like, fat. This meat is very fatty.
ˈfattiness nounˈfat-head noun
a stupid person.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
fatness
n. gordura.
English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012