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
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
In a speech last week Sir Keir Starmer promised to make the "flabby" state more efficient and cut bureaucracy.
From BBC • Mar. 17, 2025
There’s no method here that will render it crispy and browned, and no one wants to cut through flabby chicken skin.
From Salon • Feb. 24, 2025
They are short, tall, flabby, lean, clean-shaven, bearded, bald and pony-tailed.
From New York Times • Nov. 27, 2024
"Oh somebody," I said, with a flabby gesture of dismissal.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
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.
