fat

Adjective

fat (comparative fatter, superlative fattest)

1. (derogatory, sometimes) 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.
2. 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 James Lever, A Day's Ride

   Synonyms:

   thick

3. 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, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
4. Bountiful.
5. Oily; greasy; unctuous; rich (said of food).
6. (obsolete) 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
   • making our western wits fat & mean1855 July 21, Ralph Waldo Emerson, letter to Walter Whitman
7. Fertile; productive.
   • a fat soil; a fat pasture
   • Land was fatter, soil was rich, hands were many1974, “Which Way Africa”, performed by Tunji Oyelana
8. Rich; producing a large income; desirable.
   • It's a fat contract for a fat part in the film, so he’ll grown fat on the profits.
   • a fat benefice; a fat office; a fat job
9. Abounding in riches; affluent; fortunate.
   • , "Why Christ's Doctrine was Rejected"
     persons grown fat and wealthy by a long and successful imposture
10. (dated) 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. 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
12. 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 the Theatre, page 131
    • He seeks a fat role in a hit show, lest he diminish his market value.1997, Harold Clurman, On Directing, page 12

Noun (1)

fat (usually uncountable, plural fats)

1. (usually) 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.
   1. (usually) 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, usually) 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 known as food, →ISBN, page 32
3. (usually) That part of an organization deemed wasteful.
   • We need to trim the fat in this company
4. (slang, usually) An erection.
   • I saw Daniel crack a fat.
5. (usually) A poorly played shot where the ball is struck by the top part of the club head. (see also thin, shank, toe)
6. (usually) The best or richest productions; the best part.
   • to live on the fat of the land
7. (dated, usually) Work containing much blank, or its equivalent, and therefore profitable to the compositor.
8. (derogatory, informal, usually) 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

   Synonyms:

   fatty

9. (Australia, usually) 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

Verb

fat (third-person singular simple present fats, present participle fatting, simple past and past participle fatted)

1. (archaic, transitive) To make fat; to fatten.
   • kill the fatted calf
2. (archaic, intransitive) To become fat; to fatten.
3. (transitive) 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. So he drives up and drops where he should’ve dropped the first time and hits it...2019 April 2, Rick Reilly, How and why President Trump cheats at golf — even when he’s playing against Tiger Woods, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2022

Noun (2)

fat (plural fats)

1. (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 12s., and a great copper beer pot for 13s. 4d.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 429
2. (obsolete) A dry measure, generally equal to nine bushels.

Noun (3)

fat (plural fats)

1. 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

Noun (4) capitalized: FAT

IPA/fæt/

FAT (countable and uncountable, plural FATs)

1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of file allocation table.
   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. Any of a series of genes and their equivalent proteins that are associated with cell proliferation.
3. (England, Wales, abbreviation, countable, initialism) Initialism of full agricultural tenancy.