fat body
Britishnoun
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a mass of fatty tissue in insects, used as an energy source during hibernation and metamorphosis
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a similar tissue mass in amphibians and reptiles
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.
Varroa mites weaken bees by feeding on their fat body tissue, an essential organ that supports immune function, metabolism, and energy storage.
From Science Daily • Apr. 20, 2026
Yesika Salgado is a Los Angeles-based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, her culture, her city and her fat body.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 23, 2025
Testing the technique in fruit flies, the researchers found that 51 proteins voyaged from the animals’ muscles to their heads and 269 moved from the fat body, the insects’ main energy storehouse, to their legs.
From Science Magazine • May 22, 2024
One of the most severe threats to honey bees over the past several decades has been Varroa destructor, a crablike parasitic mite that feeds on honey bees' fat body tissue.
From Salon • Nov. 12, 2022
He looked like a figure out of a Tarzan movie; he was dressed in animal bones, shells, bladders and skins, and his fat body and deadpan face were caked with red clay.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
