chubby
Americanadjective
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:
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
“We identified a bit with the animal, which is also chubby like us,” Lizarraga said when asked by a Mexican radio station about the origin of the name.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
Think gingerbread men, only soft, chubby, and less fearful.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2026
Kerry Ives told her trial that Ethan was a "a bubbly little child" and "chubby" when he arrived in their home, but that all changed over the next two months.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2025
Mama's chubby alligator, Gumbo, slithered out of the water and onto the pier, slapping his tail with excitement.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
They’re so intent on nourishing their chicks that the fledglings grow larger and chubbier than their parents by the time of the winter migration south.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 12, 2022
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
Right now, I look like a chubbier, “woke Mitt Romney”—not my term.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2020
And his brother is chubbier and called Marmeluc, which is a ridiculous name if you ask me.
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
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
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
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
Pressed against her knee stood the dirtiest and chubbiest four-year-old child on the borders of Brevoort Lake—perhaps the dirtiest on the north shore of Michigan.
From The Cursed Patois From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899 by Catherwood, Mary Hartwell
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.
