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
Eala wins 'for all the girls with ruffled socks and chubby cheeks'
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 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
His straight baby teeth had given way to buck teeth and gaps, his chubby cheeks had thinned into his approaching adolescence.
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
“Modeling was performing, but I had braces and noticed I was chubbier than everybody else, creating new anxieties. To be 11, 12, and 13 just sucked.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
Helena thinks capybaras are “really cute,” Nicoleti said, “and the chubbier the capybara, the more she likes them.”
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
The defendant was chubbier than I remembered, with a mustache that made him look like Lt.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2024
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
Beside him was a chubbier knight, with similar golden curls.
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
The mother was even younger, yet the child was already some two years old, the chubbiest, brightest-eyed bundle of humanity imaginable.
From Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras — Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond by Harry Alverson Franck
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.
