flabby
Americanadjective
-
flabbier,
comparative
-
flabbiest
superlative
-
hanging loosely or limply, as flesh or muscles; flaccid.
-
having such flesh.
-
lacking strength or determination.
adjective
-
lacking firmness; loose or yielding
flabby muscles
-
having flabby flesh, esp through being overweight
-
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.
See Examples For:
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
About a year and a half ago, it occurred to me that if I didn’t start working out again, I’d be sliding into a sloppy, flabby late middle age.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2024
At every life stage, it has stretched a system that was often too small to accommodate it, leaving it somewhat flabby and misshapen in its wake.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2024
He thought of the virtues of courage and forbearance, which become flabby when there is nothing to use them on.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
The new ones are flabbier, slacker, with long periods of strangely self-regarding, even aimless conducting.
From New York Times ● May 26, 2022
That’s heavier than a whole ass Honda Civic, bulkier than a Subaru BRZ, flabbier than a Ford Fiesta.
From The Verge ● Feb. 16, 2022
She looked flabbier around the middle, her skin didn't glisten as much, and the sparkle in her eyes dimmed.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2021
“New Girl” star Jake Johnson voices a flabbier and depressed Peter Parker who wears sweat pants and is going through a divorce to Mary Jane.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 10, 2018
He was wound up as tight as a spring, and I thought that any second he might pounce on Dusty Muleman, who was smaller and flabbier.
From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen
The sessions with Ezra, however, are the flabbiest part of this lengthy film.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2021
Moreover, during Broadway's flabbiest theater season in years and a week when one play closed after opening night and another should have.
From Time Magazine Archive
The winter wilderness, once the province of a few hardy sportsmen, now opens up to even the flabbiest American with the newest things in snow-gadgetry.
From Time Magazine Archive
At the sight of Will, he endeavoured to smile, and his handshake, though the flabbiest possible, was meant for a cordial response to the young man's heartiness.
From Will Warburton by George Gissing
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.
