Learning / English Dictionary

FAT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: fatted    , fatter    , fattest    , fatting   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Excess bodily weight

Example:

she disliked fatness in herself as well as in others

Synonyms:

avoirdupois; blubber; fat; fatness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("fat" is a kind of...):

bodily property (an attribute of the body)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fat"):

adiposeness; adiposity; fattiness (having the property of containing fat)

abdominousness; paunchiness (the bodily property of a protruding belly)

greasiness; oiliness; oleaginousness (consisting of or covered with oil)

corpulency; fleshiness; obesity (more than average fatness)

steatopygia (an extreme accumulation of fat on the buttocks)

Derivation:

fat (make fat or plump)

fat (having an (over)abundance of flesh)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A kind of body tissue containing stored fat that serves as a source of energy; it also cushions and insulates vital organs

Example:

fatty tissue protected them from the severe cold

Synonyms:

adipose tissue; fat; fatty tissue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("fat" is a kind of...):

animal tissue (the tissue in the bodies of animals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fat"):

love handle; spare tire (excess fat around the waistline)

belly; paunch (a protruding abdomen)

mons; mons pubis; mons veneris (a mound of fatty tissue covering the pubic area in women)

puppy fat (fat on the body of a baby or child; disappears at adolescence)

cellulite (lumpy deposits of body fat especially on women's thighs etc.)

atheroma (a fatty deposit in the intima (inner lining) of an artery; can obstruct blood flow)

flab (loose or flaccid body fat)

Derivation:

fat (make fat or plump)

fat; fatty (containing or composed of fat)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A soft greasy substance occurring in organic tissue and consisting of a mixture of lipids (mostly triglycerides)

Example:

pizza has too much fat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("fat" is a kind of...):

lipid; lipide; lipoid (an oily organic compound insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents; essential structural component of living cells (along with proteins and carbohydrates))

Meronyms (parts of "fat"):

acylglycerol; glyceride (an ester of glycerol and fatty acids that occurs naturally as fats and fatty oils)

Meronyms (substance of "fat"):

triglyceride (glyceride occurring naturally in animal and vegetable tissues; it consists of three individual fatty acids bound together in a single large molecule; an important energy source forming much of the fat stored by the body)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fat"):

edible fat (oily or greasy matter making up the bulk of fatty tissue in animals and in seeds and other plant tissue)

animal fat (any fat obtained from animals)

cocoa butter (a yellow-white fat from cocoa beans)

leaf fat; leaf lard (fat lining the abdomen and kidneys in hogs which is used to make lard)

medulla; myelin; myeline (a white fatty substance that forms a medullary sheath around the axis cylinder of some nerve fibers)

polyunsaturated fat (a class of fats having long carbon chains with many double bonds unsaturated with hydrogen atoms; used in some margarines; supposedly associated with low blood cholesterol)

Holonyms ("fat" is a substance of...):

adipose cell; fat cell (cells composed of fat)

Derivation:

fat (containing or composed of fat)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having an (over)abundance of flesh

Example:

he hadn't remembered how fat she was

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

portly; stout (euphemisms for 'fat')

gross; porcine (repellently fat)

fleshy; heavy; overweight (usually describes a large person who is fat but has a large frame to carry it)

fattish (somewhat fat)

dumpy; podgy; pudgy; roly-poly; tubby (short and plump)

double-chinned; jowly; loose-jowled (having sagging folds of flesh beneath the chin or lower jaw)

corpulent; obese; rotund; weighty (excessively fat)

buxom; zaftig; zoftig ((of a female body) healthily plump and vigorous)

chubby; embonpoint; plump (sufficiently fat so as to have a pleasing fullness of figure)

blubbery (swollen with fat)

abdominous; paunchy; potbellied (having a large belly)

Also:

endomorphic; pyknic (having a squat and fleshy build)

rounded (curving and somewhat round in shape rather than jagged)

thick (not thin; of a specific thickness or of relatively great extent from one surface to the opposite usually in the smallest of the three solid dimensions)

Attribute:

body weight (the weight of a person's body)

Antonym:

thin (lacking excess flesh)

Derivation:

fat; fatness (excess bodily weight)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Containing or composed of fat

Example:

fat tissue

Synonyms:

fat; fatty

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

superfatted ((of soap) containing extra unsaponified fat)

suety (like or full of suet)

greasy; oily; oleaginous; sebaceous (containing an unusual amount of grease or oil)

buttery (resembling or containing or spread with butter)

adipose (composed of animal fat)

Derivation:

fat (a kind of body tissue containing stored fat that serves as a source of energy; it also cushions and insulates vital organs)

fat (a soft greasy substance occurring in organic tissue and consisting of a mixture of lipids (mostly triglycerides))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Marked by great fruitfulness

Example:

rich soil

Synonyms:

fat; fertile; productive; rich

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

fruitful (productive or conducive to producing in abundance)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Lucrative

Example:

a nice fat job

Synonyms:

fat; juicy

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

profitable (yielding material gain or profit)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Having a relatively large diameter

Example:

a fat rope

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

thick (not thin; of a specific thickness or of relatively great extent from one surface to the opposite usually in the smallest of the three solid dimensions)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make fat or plump

Example:

We will plump out that poor starving child

Synonyms:

fat; fatten; fatten out; fatten up; fill out; flesh out; plump; plump out

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "fat" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

"Fat" entails doing...:

feed; give (give food to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

fat (excess bodily weight)

fat (a kind of body tissue containing stored fat that serves as a source of energy; it also cushions and insulates vital organs)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Expression of the gene may be associated with fat loss in patients with advanced cancers.

(AZGP1 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

It is also associated with muscle cells, Schwann cells, fat cells, and capillaries; and is interposed between the cellular elements and the underlying connective tissue.

(Basilar Membrane, NCI Thesaurus)

Plaque is a sticky substance made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood.

(Atherosclerosis, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

It is found in animal and human fat as well as in the liver, brain, and glandular organs, and is a constituent of animal phosphatides.

(Arachidonic Acid, NCI Thesaurus)

Your body can use this fuel right away, or it can store the energy in your body tissues, such as your liver, muscles, and body fat.

(Metabolic Disorders, NIH)

In a minority of cases, the sarcomatous component contains heterologous elements including striated muscle, cartilage, and fat.

(Adenosarcoma, NCI Thesaurus)

It is used by many cells in the body to make energy from fat.

(acetyl-L-carnitine, NCI Dictionary)

There's one thing I'll bet you, he said, and it is that Mr. Butler is nothin' gay-hearted now in his fat days.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A benign (noncancer) tumor of fat and muscle tissue that usually is found in the kidney.

(Angiomyolipoma, NCI Dictionary)

A tissue sample that contains mesenteric fat and peritoneal tissue.

(Mesentery/Peritoneum, NCI Thesaurus)