flabby

American  

[flab-ee] / ˈflæb i /

adjective

flabbier, flabbiest

1. hanging loosely or limply, as flesh or muscles; flaccid.

2. having such flesh.

3. lacking strength or determination.

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flabby British  

/ ˈflæbɪ /

adjective

1. lacking firmness; loose or yielding

   flabby muscles

2. having flabby flesh, esp through being overweight

3. lacking vitality; weak; ineffectual

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Other Word Forms

• flabbily adverb
• flabbiness noun

Etymology

Origin of flabby

1690–1700; apparently expressive alteration of earlier flappy, with same sense; flap, -y ¹; compare late Middle English flabband (attested once), evidently with sense “flapping”

Example Sentences

Meanwhile the narrator’s financially devious husband appears as a vulture with “the brooding eye, the blood-tipped beak, the flabby folds of flesh” of a bird of prey.

From The Wall Street Journal

Too much leads to flabby and underdeveloped minds.

From The Wall Street Journal

Instead of a skeleton and scales, the blobfish has a soft body and flabby skin.

From BBC

There’s no method here that will render it crispy and browned, and no one wants to cut through flabby chicken skin.

From Salon

At a hefty 2 hours and 24 minutes, the film is flabby, not jacked, and lacking in an unpredictable live-wire element.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• lax
• sloppy