fat

1 adjective

1 FLESH having a lot of flesh on your body, especially too much flesh: You'll get fat if you eat all that chocolate. | That big fat opera singer - what's his name?

—opposite thin 1 (2)

2 THICK OR WIDE thick or wide: Dobbs was smoking a fat cigar. | a big fat book

3 MONEY (only before noun) informal containing or worth a large amount of money: a fat cheque | a job in the City with a nice fat salary

4 fat chance informal used to say that something is very unlikely to happen

(+ of): What, John get a job? Fat chance of that!

5 a fat lot of good/use spoken not at all useful or helpful: “I don't know much about cars.” “Well you're a fat lot of use aren't you?”

6 fat cat informal someone who has too much money

7 in fat city AmE informal having plenty of money: We'll be in fat city if this deal goes through.

8 grow fat on sth to become rich because of something: The finance men had grown fat on managing other people's money.

— fatness noun (U) USAGE NOTE : FAT WORD CHOICE: fat, overweight, large, heavy, plump, chubby, stout, tubby, obese If you want to be polite about someone, do not say that they are fat. (A little) overweight or just large is a more polite way of saying the same thing. In American English, you can also say that someone is heavy when you want to be polite. Plump is most often used of women and children and means slightly (and pleasantly) fat. Chubby is most often used of babies and children and also means pleasantly fat and healthy-looking. When you are describing adults, stout means slightly fat and heavy and tubby means short and fat, especially around the stomach. If someone is extremely fat and unhealthy they are obese.Obese is also the word used by doctors. 2 noun

1 PERSON OR ANIMAL (U) a substance that is stored under the skin of people and animals, and helps to keep them warm: Rolls of fat bulged over his collar. | I didn't like the meat - there was too much fat on it.

2 IN FOOD (C, U) an oily substance contained in certain foods: Try to reduce the amount of fat in your diet.

3 FOR COOKING (C, U) an oily substance taken from animals or plants and used in cooking: Skim off all the fat, then add the vegetables.

4 the fat is in the fire used to say that there will be trouble because of something that has happened

5 live off the fat of the land to get enough money to live comfortably without doing much work

6 run to fat to start to become fat, especially because you are getting older or do not do much exercise

—see also: chew the fat chew 1 (4), puppy fat