flabby
Americanadjective
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hanging loosely or limply, as flesh or muscles; flaccid.
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having such flesh.
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lacking strength or determination.
adjective
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lacking firmness; loose or yielding
flabby muscles
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having flabby flesh, esp through being overweight
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lacking vitality; weak; ineffectual
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of flabby
1690–1700; apparently expressive alteration of earlier flappy, with same sense; see flap, -y 1; compare late Middle English flabband (attested once), evidently with sense “flapping”
Explanation
If you're flabby, you're out of shape, with a soft, slack body. Some people join a gym when they're feeling a little flabby. People who are flabby aren't star athletes — you may be flabby after a long, cold winter spent mostly indoors, or feel flabby as you struggle to hike up a mountain. You can describe other things as figuratively flabby too, if they're a little sloppy or weak. Flabby writing is messy and disorganized, and a flabby politician is ineffective. Flabby started as flappy, "softly fleshy," in the 16th century.
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.
But if poetry is about saying a lot in a little—the fine art of distillation—then by the end of its two-hour runtime “A Poet” comes off more like funny but flabby prose.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026
Instead of a skeleton and scales, the blobfish has a soft body and flabby skin.
From BBC • Mar. 19, 2025
They are short, tall, flabby, lean, clean-shaven, bearded, bald and pony-tailed.
From New York Times • Nov. 27, 2024
She then placed a plate on the table that consisted of flabby, unappetizing bacon with a few char marks…
From Salon • Dec. 30, 2023
On his flabby shoulders he had wispy blond hairs that flowed in the wind like corn silk.
From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos
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.
