chubby
Americanadjective
-
chubbier,
comparative
-
chubbiest
superlative
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of chubby
Explanation
Someone who's chubby is plump or slightly overweight. If the vet mentions that your cat's getting a little chubby, you might need to cut down on the cat treats. Many toddlers and young children have round, chubby cheeks, puppies have chubby little bellies, and Santa Claus is perhaps the most famously chubby mythical figure. The word chubby dates from the early 17th century, when it literally meant "looks like a chub," a somewhat round-shaped river fish. There may also be a connection to the Old Norse kumben, "stumpy."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It still has Bob’s Big Boy, the last restaurant of a once-large chain known for its chubby mascot, and Milt & Edie’s, a quirky pink-awninged 24-hour tailor and dry cleaner dating to the 1980s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
"In Neapolitan culture, if a child is a little chubby with rosy cheeks, people often think they're healthy."
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
In early scenes, he has a small curved line denoting a chubby chin, which changes over time to straight lines on each cheek, narrowing his face when he is old and infirm.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 16, 2026
Think gingerbread men, only soft, chubby, and less fearful.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2026
He was beginning to annoy me as much as he had when he was a chubby boy.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Helena thinks capybaras are “really cute,” Nicoleti said, “and the chubbier the capybara, the more she likes them.”
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge The Elecjet Apollo Ultra is also chubbier than my reference battery despite holding the same number of electrons.
From The Verge ● Nov. 10, 2021
"Don't hold back. If you're chubbier, you're more eye-catching," they sing in one of their hits Stand Up.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2021
A somewhat addicting habit/hobby that started in his early, chubbier days as a Mariner has now left few parts of his typically exposed skin without some sort of permanent marking, meaningful or otherwise.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 15, 2018
His eyebrows are bare, his head is bare, his cheeks are bare as a baby’s bottom—but chubbier.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
That little dude sucks it right out of you like the world’s chubbiest and least stealthy vampire.
From Slate ● May 4, 2012
But, like hiring Hell's Angels to work security, relying on the continent's chubbiest rodents to put your landscape in order is not always a good idea.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the tiny Kentish village of Barham, the proud members of the pig war club informed her that their chubbiest, pinkest piglet was named Franklin.
From Time Magazine Archive
She had two of the world’s rosiest, chubbiest cheeks, which no one could keep from touching.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
Their children—ridiculously like their seniors from wearing the same style of garment—are the roundest, rosiest, chubbiest little pieces of humanity ever born.
From In Eastern Seas Or, the Commission of H.M.S. 'Iron Duke,' flag-ship in China, 1878-83 by J. J. Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
