doughy
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- doughiness noun
Etymology
Origin of doughy
Explanation
Something that's doughy is as squishy and soft as uncooked dough. If your cookies always come out a little doughy, you might not be baking them long enough. Some foods are deliberately doughy, like a very soft steamed dumpling or a delicious doughy doughnut. Others are doughy by accident, because they've been undercooked or made incorrectly. You can describe other things as doughy too, if they're cushiony — a kitten might purr as it kneads its mother's doughy belly, for example. Doughy comes from dough, with its Indo-European root meaning "smear" or "knead."
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.
Inspired by xiao long bao, steamed Chinese soup dumplings from the Jiangsu province, TJ’s Steamed Pork & Ginger Soup Dumplings feature hot soup, pork and ginger encased in a doughy exterior.
From Salon • Jan. 28, 2026
They have been described by resident Stan Tobin as doughy - "like someone had tried to bake bread and done a lousy job" - with an odour reminiscent of vegetable oil.
From BBC • Oct. 12, 2024
Like most of Crumbl’s offerings, it was plump, doughy, intensely sweet and topped with a thick clod of frosting.
From New York Times • Apr. 17, 2023
Even the doom-laden everything bagel that provides the film’s titular motif is redeemed, by the end, as a doughy symbol of wholeness, a poppy-seed circle of life.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 12, 2023
They’re sleeping back to back, like strange doughy twins.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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.
