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Synonyms

doughy

American  
[doh-ee] / ˈdoʊ i /

adjective

doughier, doughiest
  1. of or like dough, especially in being soft and heavy or pallid and flabby.

    a doughy consistency; a fat, doughy face.


doughy British  
/ ˈdəʊɪ /

adjective

  1. resembling dough in consistency, colour, etc; soft, pallid, or flabby

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of doughy

First recorded in 1595–1605; dough + -y 1


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."

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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:

The mochi balls of doughy rice filled with ice-cream exploded on TikTok, but its apparent overnight success was more than a decade in the making.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

I called Barcelona home for a spell, and I feel the draw to cap this visit by seeing an old doughy friend.

From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2026

A doughy Pacoima gang member nicknamed “Beast,” he lived with his girlfriend and had to ask to borrow her Honda Civic, Vinton testified.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2025

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

Sheryl and I have a thick square stack of doughy wrappers, plus bowls of meat-and-veggie filling.

From "The House That Lou Built" by Mae Respicio

Papo’s is part of a wave of new shops in Britain selling New York-style bagels, distinct for being bigger, doughier and more heavily seasoned than their London counterparts.

From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2024

Think of it as a cross between orecchiette and gnocchi, as it's slightly doughier than many other rolled pastas.

From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2022

In the days since the retrieval, the effects of the withdrawal from the hormones are worse than the ones I had from the injections: I’m doughier than ever, exhausted, depressed.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 23, 2018

But what about the brilliant millennial marketing team at the slightly doughier, self-proclaimed "third-largest," international pizza chain Papa John’s?

From The Verge ● Aug. 30, 2016

Clara had her arm around her date, who looked doughier than I recalled, his round face almost featureless, his eyebrows vanished; even the point of his green toothpick seemed blurred.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 1, 2015

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