English
fat
see also: FAT
Pronunciation Etymology 1

From Middle English fat, from Old English fǣtt, from Proto-West Germanic *faitid, originally the past participle of the verb *faitijan, from *fait.

Adjective

fat (comparative fatter, superlative fattest)

  1. Carrying more fat than usual on one's body; plump; not lean or thin.
    The fat man had trouble getting 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.
  2. Thick; large.
    The fat wallets of the men from the city brought joy to the peddlers.
  3. Bulbous; rotund.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC ↗:
      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, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
  4. Bountiful.
  5. Oily; greasy; unctuous; rich (said of food).
  6. (obsolete) Exhibiting the qualities of a fat animal; coarse; heavy; gross; dull; stupid.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Isaiah 6:10 ↗, column 1:
      Make the heart of this people fat, […]
    • 1855 July 21, Ralph Waldo Emerson, letter to Walter Whitman
      making our western wits fat & mean
  7. Fertile; productive.
    a fat soil; a fat pasture
  8. Rich; producing a large income; desirable.
    a fat benefice; a fat office;  a fat job
    • 1882, Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences:
      now parson of Troston, a fat living in Suffolk
  9. Abounding in riches; affluent; fortunate.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
      , "Why Christ's Doctrine was Rejected"
      persons grown fat and wealthy by a long and successful imposture
  10. (dated, printing) 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
  11. (golf) Being a shot in which the ground is struck before the ball.
    • 1992, DeDe Owens, Linda K. Bunker, Advanced Golf: Steps to Success, page 81:
      Hitting a thin shot from a fairway bunker is more productive than hitting a fat shot.
  12. (theatre) Of a role: significant; major; meaty.
    • 1965, Edmund Fuller, A Pageant of the Theatre, page 131:
      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.
    • 1997, Harold Clurman, On Directing, page 12:
      He seeks a fat role in a hit show, lest he diminish his market value.
    • 2012, Greg Robinson, Larry S. Tajiri, Pacific Citizens, page 9:
      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.
  13. (slang) Being greatly or substantially such; real.
    • 1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
      I'd've liked to hang around but the guys were in a fat hurry.
  14. (computing) Carrying additional data or functionality.
    fat client
    a fat pointer
  15. Alternative form of phat
    • 2011, Joe Shambro, How to Start a Home-based DJ Business, page 19:
      This isn't a place to talk about “hitting the decks” and making “fat beats”—you're not selling to an industry peer.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English fat, fatt, fatte, from the adjective above, and possibly from Old English fǣt, from Proto-West Germanic *fait, from Proto-Germanic *faitą, *faitaz.

Noun

fat (uncountable)

  1. (uncountable) 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.
    Hyponym: blubber
    1. 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.
  2. (countable) 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.
  3. That part of an organization deemed wasteful.
    We need to trim the fat in this company
  4. (slang) An erection.
    I saw Daniel crack a fat.
  5. (golf) A poorly played shot where the ball is struck by the top part of the club head. (see also thin, shank, toe)
  6. The best or richest productions; the best part.
    to live on the fat of the land
  7. (dated, printing) Work containing much blank, or its equivalent, and therefore profitable to the compositor.
  8. (informal, derogatory) A fat person.
    • 1996, Roger Stone, "Local Swing Fever", highlighted by National Enquirer in September 1996 and Daily Mail in January 2019 ↗
      Prefer military, bodybuilders, jocks. No smokers or fats please.
  9. A beef cattle fattened for sale.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations
  • Italian: ramo secco
Verb

fat (fats, present participle fatting; simple past and past participle fatted)

  1. (transitive, archaic) To make fat; to fatten.
    kill the fatted calf
  2. (intransitive, archaic) To become fat; to fatten.
  3. (transitive, golf) To hit a golf ball with a fat shot.
Translations Etymology 3

From Middle English fat, from Old English fæt, from Proto-Germanic *fatą, from Proto-Indo-European *pod-.

Noun

fat (plural fats)

  1. (obsolete) A large tub or vessel for water, wine, or other liquids; a cistern.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Joel 2:24 ↗, column 1:
      And the floores ſhall bee full of wheate, and the fats ſhall ouerflowe with wine and oyle.
    • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 429:
      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 12s., and a great copper beer pot for 13s. 4d.
  2. (obsolete) A dry measure, generally equal to nine bushels.
Synonyms
FAT
Pronunciation Noun

fat

  1. (computing) Acronym of File Allocation Table or file allocation table.
    1. Any of a series of file systems that use one or more FATs.
      1. (often, specifically) FAT16 or FAT16B.
      2. (sometimes, specifically) FAT12.
      3. (specifically, Microsoft Windows) FAT12 or FAT16, without drawing a distinction between the two.
  2. (genetics, protein) Any of a series of genes and their equivalent proteins that are associated with cell proliferation.
  3. (countable, property law, E&W) Initialism of full agricultural tenancy


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