fat
A specialized animal tissue with high lipid content, used for long-term storage of energy: fat tissue.
Adjective
- Carrying more fat than usual on one's body; plump; not lean or thin.
- The fat man had problems going through the door.
- The fattest pig should yield the most meat.
- 1932, New Orleans (La.) Board of Health, Vox Sanitatis While Hennessey is pouring the milk, the fat guy with the big pot-belly, will come over and write a lot of junk in his little book.
- Thick; large.
- The fat wallets of the men from the city brought joy to the peddlers.
- The thickest salmon, the curdiest trout, the fattest partridge, and the most tender woodcock smoked on his board, and, rumor said, cooked with a delicacy that more pretentious houses could not rival. - 1861, Charles...
- Bulbous; rotund.
- So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds,...
- Bountiful.
- Oily; greasy; unctuous; rich (said of food).
- Exhibiting the qualities of a fat animal; coarse; heavy; gross; dull; stupid.
- Make the heart of this people fat,[…] - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 6:10, column 1:
- 1855 July 21, Ralph Waldo Emerson, letter to Walter Whitman making our western wits fat & mean
- Fertile; productive.
- a fat soil; a fat pasture
- Land was fatter, soil was rich, hands were many - 1974, “Which Way Africa”, performed by Tunji Oyelana:
- Rich; producing a large income; desirable.
- a fat benefice; a fat office; a fat job
- now parson of Troston, a fat living in Suffolk - 1882, Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences:
- Abounding in riches; affluent; fortunate.
- , "Why Christ's Doctrine was Rejected" persons grown fat and wealthy by a long and successful imposture
- Of a character which enables the compositor to make large wages; said of matter containing blank, cuts, or many leads, etc.
- a fat take; a fat page
- Being a shot in which the ground is struck before the ball.
- Hitting a thin shot from a fairway bunker is more productive than hitting a fat shot. - 1992, DeDe Owens, Linda K. Bunker, Advanced Golf: Steps to Success, page 81:
- Of a role: significant; major; meaty.
- He is what the theatre calls a “fat” role — a man suddenly confronted by a terrible duty. He is called upon to revenge the murder of his father and to right a wrong against the state. - 1965, Edmund Fuller, A Pageant of...
- He seeks a fat role in a hit show, lest he diminish his market value. - 1997, Harold Clurman, On Directing, page 12:
- Joe Hirakawa, formerly of the Seattle Civic Repertory Theatre, was a waterfront peddler in “Madame Butterfly” and had a fat role in “Beauty Parlor,” an indie. - 2012, Greg Robinson, Larry S. Tajiri, Pacific Citizens,...
Origin
From Middle English fat, from Old English fǣtt (“fatted, fat”), from Proto-West Germanic *faitid (“fatted”), originally the past participle of the verb *faitijan (“to make fat”), from *fait (“fat”).
Forms
Synonyms
chubby chunky corpulent lardy obese overweight plump porky rotund tubby well-fed thick bountiful prosperous
Antonyms
Derived
big fat big-fat big, fat, hairy deal big fat zero cut it fat deathfat fat acceptance fat activist fat and happy fat arrow fat-arse fat as a barrel fat as a fool fat as a house fat as a pig fat-ass fatassed fat-assed fat ball fat beard fatbeard fat bike fatbike fat body
Noun Entry 2
- A specialized animal tissue with high lipid content, used for long-term storage of energy: fat tissue.
- Mammals that hibernate have plenty of fat to keep them warm during the winter.
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Such tissue as food: the fatty portion of (or trimmings from) meat cuts.
- Ask the butcher for a few pounds of fat for our greens.
- A lipid that is solid at room temperature, which fat tissue contains and which is also found in the blood circulation; sometimes, a refined substance chemically resembling such naturally occurring lipids.
- Dietary fat is not the evil that it was once misapprehended to be; carbs are increasingly recognized as a bigger driver of atherosclerosis via chronic insulin resistance and the vascular processes that cascade from it.
- In fact, the fats that are most stable and least likely to oxidize with heat are the highly saturated fats we've long been told to avoid—lard, tallow, butter, and coconut and palm oils. - 2018, Kristin Lawless, Formerly...
- That part of an organization deemed wasteful.
- We need to trim the fat in this company
- An erection.
- I saw Daniel crack a fat.
- A poorly played shot where the ball is struck by the top part of the club head. (see also thin, shank, toe)
- The best or richest productions; the best part.
- to live on the fat of the land
- Work containing much blank, or its equivalent, and therefore profitable to the compositor.
- A fat person.
- Prefer military, bodybuilders, jocks. No smokers or fats please. - 1996, Roger Stone, "Local Swing Fever", highlighted by National Enquirer in September 1996 and Daily Mail in January 2019
- A beef cattle fattened for sale.
- Before riding over to the fats we'll have a look about us. - 1934, Henry G. Lamond, An Aviary On The Plains, page 7:
- He was droving his mob of fats to Derby, to ship by the southern boat for Fremantle. - 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 11:
Origin
From Middle English fat, fatt, fatte, from the adjective above, and possibly from Old English fǣt (“fat”, recorded once), from Proto-West Germanic *fait, from Proto-Germanic *faitą, *faitaz (“fat”).
Forms
Synonyms
adipose tissue lard suet grease fatty fatso see also Thesaurus:fat person blubber fat flab speck weight
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
Related
Derived
animal fat antifat baby fat backfat bacon fat beige fat body fat bodyfat brown fat buccal fat extraction buccal fat removal butterfat caul fat chew the fat crack a fat death fat deep-fat-fry deep-fat fryer defat fatback fatberg fatburger fat camp fat chance
Noun obsolete
- A large tub or vessel for water, wine, or other liquids; a cistern.
- And the floores ſhall bee full of wheate, and the fats ſhall ouerflowe with wine and oyle. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joel 2:24, column 1:
- In 1431 New College purchases brewing vessels, under the names of a mash fat, for 6s. 10d., a wort fat for 2s., a 'Gilleding' tub for 2s. 6d., and two tunning barrels at 8d. each, a leaden boiler for 24s., another for...
- A dry measure, generally equal to nine bushels.
Origin
From Middle English fat, from Old English fæt (“vat, vessel, jar, cup, casket, division”), from Proto-Germanic *fatą (“vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *pod- (“vessel”). Cognate with Dutch vat (“barrel, vessel”), German Fass (“barrel, drum”), Swedish fat (“barrel, dish, cask”). See vat.
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Noun Entry 4
- A fop or dandy.
- I took my revenge on this ‘fat’, by making him as fatuitous as I possibly could. - 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette:
- Ursula was amazed and indignant at the way he made small-talk; he was adept as any fat in Christendom. - 1921, DH Lawrence, Women in Love, Vintage, published 2008, page 288:
Origin
From French fat (“conceited person”).
Forms
Synonyms
Hypernyms
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Verb
- To make fat; to fatten.
- kill the fatted calf
- To become fat; to fatten.
- To hit (a golf ball) with a fat shot.
- “On this one hole, Donald hits his second and fats it into the water,” Faxon remembers. “But he quickly says to me, ‘Hey, throw me another ball; they weren’t looking.’ So I do. But he fats that one into the water, too....