I. ˈfat, usu -ad.+V noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English fæt — more at vat
1. obsolete : a large tub, cistern, or vessel : vat : a wine cask
2. archaic : a barrel or receptacle for dry articles
3. : a measure of quantity varying with the commodity
II. adjective
( fatter ; fattest )
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English fǣtt, past participle of fǣtan to cram; akin to Old High German feizit fat (past participle of feizen fatten, cram), feiz fat, Old Norse feita to fatten, feitr fat, Latin opimus fat, fertile, copious, Greek pidyein to gush forth, pidax spring, pimelē lard, Sanskrit pīvan fat, robust, payate he swells, grows
1. : notable for having an unusual amount of fat:
a. : well fed : plump
a cute fat little baby
ate a fat capon for supper
b. : fleshy with superfluous nonmuscular flabby tissue : corpulent , obese
a woman of medium height, a little plump but not fat — Mary McCarthy
c. of an animal : fatted and likely to yield much red meat
d. of food : oily , greasy
a fat , rich cheese
2.
a. : well filled out : of sizable proportions : thick
a fat letter
a fat volume of verse
: big
a resistor spark plug … permits a wider gap, thus a fatter hotter spark — Newsweek
: unusually large
he had to pay a fat price to move his factory — Martin Turnell
: substantial and impressive
point to some fat facts and figures to justify his claim — Time
a fat bank account
make a mule of myself for a fat fee on the stage — Harry Bailey
also : full , rich
a gorgeous fat bass voice — Irish Digest
the fat aroma of chocolate and coffee — Marcia Davenport
b. : well furnished, filled, or stocked
a fat refrigerator
a fat shelf
this book is fat with firsthand information — Frank Rounds
: abundant
a fat feast
also : prosperous , wealthy
grew fat on the war — Time
c. of a type face : characterized by wide letters ; also : characterized by wide letters with heavy downstrokes and light upstrokes
d. of a line of copy or type : too wide to fit the measure
a fat heading
e. of a slug : cast larger than its normal body size
trimming knives set to cast slugs .0015 inch fat
3.
a. : richly rewarding
a fat part in a new play
: markedly profitable or lucrative or presenting a marked opportunity of profit or advantage
a nice fat job
a fat opening in a business firm
landed in the fat post of governor of Buenos Aires — Time
b. slang : practically nonexistent : negligible
the depression left us with a fat chance of making our first million
a fat lot of good it did him — Arthur Koestler
c. archaic , of matter printed on a handpress : easy and profitable
d. : making few if any demands : slothful
the dull, soft, fat routine of peace — F.E.Robin
4. : productive , fertile , fruitful
growing soft on the fat land and the easy living
a fat year for crops
5.
a. of clay or soil : containing a high proportion of minerals that make clay or soil greasy to the touch, highly plastic, cohesive and compressible, difficult to work when wet, and strong when dry
b. of beer or wine : fullbodied and smooth
c. of air or mist : filled with moisture or odors
d. of wood : having a high resin content
pine splinters fat with pitch — Rebecca Caudill
e. of coal : having a high content of volatile matter
f. of a pavement : having too high a content of bitumen
g. of mortar : containing a high cement or lime content
h. of lime : pure or nearly so and slaking rapidly
6.
a. : heavy, coarse, gross, or slow-witted in a way suggesting an overfed animal
a foolish smile on his fat face
fat stupidity
b. : foolish , empty
got myself in trouble because I did not use my fat head
Synonyms:
fleshy , stout , corpulent , obese , chubby , rotund , portly , plump : fat suggests an abundance of flesh, especially adipose, nonmuscular flesh; it may be uncomplimentary
the unreasonably fat woman with legs like tree trunks — Katherine A. Porter
he remained fat, and his round, red cheeks shone like ripe apples — W.S.Maugham
fleshy is a close synonym for fat but may suggest an abundance of muscular flesh as well as adipose
my appetite is plenty good enough, and I am about as fleshy as I was in Brooklyn — Walt Whitman
stout suggests a thickset figure with abundant flesh, but is a less uncomplimentary word than fat
one very stout gentleman, whose body and legs looked like half a gigantic roll of flannel — Charles Dickens
corpulent suggests a bulky excess of flesh, either graceless or burly
a large burly man, gradually growing corpulent, with a soft oily face — Anthony Trollope
obese suggests a graceless excess of flesh; it is often used in medical or pathological discussion and is always quite uncomplimentary
a woman of robust frame … though stout, not obese — Charlotte Brontë
a retarded, obese child who died young
chubby may suggest rounded ample flesh; it is often used in reference to children and suggests well-nurtured health and appeal
[children] looked so fresh and pink and chubby — Bruce Marshall
rotund stresses the notion of roundness and is applicable without being umcomplimentary to more-or-less short men and women of ample girth
a rotund governor, five feet six inches in height, six feet five inches in circumference
portly suggests a thickset body with quite ample girth sustained with presence and carried with dignity
large, imposing, portly people … with the air of grave responsibility which sometimes marks the man of large and imperious physical organism — Havelock Ellis
plump suggests soft, pleasing, ample, buxom fullness with well-rounded curves and lack of sharp angularity
his wife was … plump where he was spare — Dorothy Sayers
III. verb
( fatted ; fatted ; fatting ; fats )
Etymology: Middle English fatten, from Old English fǣttian, from fǣtt fat — more at fat II
intransitive verb
: to grow fat, plump, or fleshy
large fatting pigs — British Ministry of Agric. Advisory Leaflet
transitive verb
1. : to make fat : fatten ; specifically : to feed (animals) with the intention of making fat for use as food — often used with up or out
fatted out as porkers — E.W.Lloyd
fat her up and kill her — Aldous Huxley
2. archaic : fertilize , enrich
3.
a. : to dress or impregnate (leather) with fat or fatty material
b. : to incorporate a fat, grease, or oil in
a well- fatted soap
IV. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from fat, adjective — more at fat II
1. : a part of the tissues of an animal that consists chiefly of cells distended with greasy or oily matter
the fat of meat
2.
a. : the oily or greasy substance that makes up the bulk of the cell contents of adipose tissue and occurs in smaller quantities in many other parts of animals and in plants (as in seeds)
b. : any of a class of neutral solid, semisolid, or liquid chemical compounds that are insoluble in water but soluble in ether and other organic solvents, that are glycerides C 3 H 5 (OOCR) 3 of one or more fatty acids, that are obtained industrially from adipose tissues of animals, from oilseeds, and from the pulp of some fruits, and that are used chiefly in making soap, in protective coatings (as paints and varnishes), as lubricants and softening agents (as in dressing leather), and as cooking fats and a source of energy in foods by furnishing about 9.3 large calories per gram — see lipid;; compare oil 1a, wax
c. : a solid or semisolid fat (as lard, beef or mutton tallow, butterfat) obtained chiefly from land animals — distinguished from fatty oil ; compare butter 2b
3.
a. : the best or richest productions : the best part
living on the fat of the land
b. : an effective part or effective lines or business given to an actor in a dramatic work
4. : the condition of fatness : corpulence , obesity
a person somewhat inclined to fat
5. : a meat animal that is fat and ready for market — usually used in plural
commercial producers, all of whose pigs are being sold as fats — New Zealand Journal of Agric.
6.
a. : something in excess or expendable : superfluity
slicing a little fat off the city budget — Anthony West
the new reserves would have to come from the remaining fat of the United States not yet stripped for total war — Time
b. : resources in excess of those needed immediately : savings, reserves
while the country is in a relative depression, it can still live for a time off its fat — Newsweek
V. (|)fat, _fət
Scotland
variant of what
VI.
variant of phat