pudgy
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pudgy
First recorded in 1830–40; origin uncertain
Explanation
To be pudgy is to be chubby and short. Baby piglets are sometimes pudgy, but not the runts. Pudgy can describe body parts, too, like a baby’s pudgy cheeks. When you're pudgy, you're a little overweight and short. Many children are pudgy, though they usually outgrow the baby fat. Being pudgy is often associated with being cute. For example, bulldogs and pugs are pudgy dogs — they have squat, round bodies that are adorable.
Vocabulary lists containing pudgy
Ghost Boys
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Red Kayak
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Lucky Broken Girl
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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:
Others tried their hands at a bottle ring toss to win crypto-themed plushies of pudgy penguins or bitcoin monkeys.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
Tom Brandis is a rumpled, pudgy wreck, an ex-priest who no longer believes in God and can’t absolve his son of a sin that shattered their family.
From Salon ● Oct. 6, 2025
Harbaugh remembered him as a pudgy, 5-foot-7 eighth grader.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2025
Kissinger was pudgy and messy but incongruously acquired a reputation as a ladies’ man in the staid Nixon administration.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2023
I am hunched there like a fat dark shadow, my eyes cut sideways toward Caroline, thumb in mouth, the pudgy hand covering most of my face.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
I’ll be a little paler and a little pudgier.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2020
In his second term, a visibly pudgier Garcia oversaw explosive economic growth.
From Reuters ● Apr. 17, 2019
But the devotional words today go to a cuddlier, pudgier lover of show tunes who speaks not in the cadences of Upper Manhattan but of Greater London.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 13, 2016
Maybe longer, pudgier and rolled up with rice, protein and vegetables? You know, kind of like a burrito?
From Washington Post ● Mar. 4, 2016
They rode the elevator up to Citra’s apartment with a pudgy woman with a pudgier pug, who was positively terrified.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
"This one," she said, holding up the pudgiest bundle, "because this is the china cat, and I want Joel to have that."
From Five Little Peppers Abroad by Margaret Sidney
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
