Word.ws English Dictionary

have more chins than a Chinese phone book

have more chins than a Chinese phone book verb: to be exceedingly fat, especially under the chin (as in a "double chin").

Verb

have more chins than a Chinese phone book (third-person singular simple present has more chins than a Chinese phone book, present participle having more chins than a Chinese phone book, simple past and past participle had more chins than a Chinese phone book)

  1. (humorous, offensive) To be exceedingly fat, especially under the chin (as in a "double chin").
    • "This woman has more chins than a Chinese phone book," says Comedian Joan Rivers in a not at all funny pay cable television special.1981 March 30, Gerald Clarke, “Show Business: The Long Way to Broadway”, in TIME, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2010
    • Our leadoff hitter has more chins than a Chinese phone book.1995, Doug Robinson, "How about replacing rosters with these subs?," The Deseret News, Feb 25, 1995, section D

Forms of have more chins than a Chinese phone book

third-person singular presenthas more chins than a Chinese phone book
present participlehaving more chins than a Chinese phone book
past participlehad more chins than a Chinese phone book
pasthad more chins than a Chinese phone book
alternative formhave more chins than a Chinese phonebook
alternative formhave got more chins than a Chinese phone book
alternative formhave got more chins than a Chinese phonebook

Origin of have more chins than a Chinese phone book

A pun on the word chin and the common Chinese surname Chin. The phrase was likely popularized by the American comic Joan Rivers.

Questions about have more chins than a Chinese phone book

What does have more chins than a Chinese phone book mean?
Have more chins than a Chinese phone book means to be exceedingly fat, especially under the chin (as in a "double chin").
What part of speech is have more chins than a Chinese phone book?
Have more chins than a Chinese phone book is a verb.
What is the past tense of have more chins than a Chinese phone book?
The past tense of have more chins than a Chinese phone book is had more chins than a Chinese phone book.

Words near have more chins than a Chinese phone book in the dictionary

  1. have kittens
  2. have legs
  3. have little time for
  4. have marital relations
  5. have mercy
  6. have more chins than a Chinese phone book
  7. have more chins than a Chinese phonebook
  8. have more chins than Chinatown
  9. have more money than God
  10. have more of something in one's finger than
  11. have no business

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have more chins than a Chinese phone book (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-have more chins than a Chinese phone book.ogg.

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