fat body

British  

noun

1. a mass of fatty tissue in insects, used as an energy source during hibernation and metamorphosis

2. a similar tissue mass in amphibians and reptiles

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Example Sentences

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

Instead of livers, honeybees have a fat body that doubles as nutrient storage and an immune shield that fights viruses and other pathogens.

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2022

"A magazine like that has never put someone like me, an actual fat body, on the cover of a magazine," she told BBC's Victoria Derbyshire.

From BBC • Aug. 30, 2018

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