flabby
Americanadjective
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hanging loosely or limply, as flesh or muscles; flaccid.
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having such flesh.
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lacking strength or determination.
adjective
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lacking firmness; loose or yielding
flabby muscles
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having flabby flesh, esp through being overweight
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lacking vitality; weak; ineffectual
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of flabby
1690–1700; apparently expressive alteration of earlier flappy, with same sense; see flap, -y 1; compare late Middle English flabband (attested once), evidently with sense “flapping”
Explanation
If you're flabby, you're out of shape, with a soft, slack body. Some people join a gym when they're feeling a little flabby. People who are flabby aren't star athletes — you may be flabby after a long, cold winter spent mostly indoors, or feel flabby as you struggle to hike up a mountain. You can describe other things as figuratively flabby too, if they're a little sloppy or weak. Flabby writing is messy and disorganized, and a flabby politician is ineffective. Flabby started as flappy, "softly fleshy," in the 16th century.
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.
Appeared in the September 22, 2025, print edition as 'How Social Media Creates Flabby Young Brains'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 21, 2025
Flabby rivals gasp that hardball players are playing too hard.
From Forbes • Aug. 7, 2015
Loudoun high school among top 10 in state Flabby?
From Washington Post • Mar. 16, 2011
Flabby satire, with tired targets like Tree's, is unearned derision full of cartoon comedy and plop art.
From Time Magazine Archive
Flabby Tabby gobbled them up, one after the other, like a fotobarastic particle vacuum.
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
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.
