pursy
1 Americanadjective
-
short-winded, especially from corpulence or fatness.
-
corpulent or fat.
adjective
adjective
-
short-winded
-
archaic fat; overweight
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pursy1
1400–50; late Middle English purcy, variant of Middle English pursif < Anglo-French porsif, variant of Old French polsif, derivative ( see -ive) of polser to pant, heave. See push
Origin of pursy2
Vocabulary lists containing pursy
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.
"For in the fatness of these pursy times/ Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg," says Hamlet to Gertrude.
From Time Magazine Archive
Terabon saw a man about 5 feet 10 inches tall, compactly built, square shouldered, and just a trifle pursy at the waist line, approaching along the dancing floor.
From The River Prophet by Ralph P. (Ralph Pallen) Coleman
The German instructor’s husband, whom all the girls called “Mister Frau Deuseldorf,” was a pursy, self-important little man, with a bristling pompadour and mustache.
From Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall Or the Mystery of the Haunted Boathouse by Annie Roe Carr
He not sail know to march, he is pursy, he is foundered.
From English as she is spoke or, A jest in sober earnest by José da Fonseca
A pursy body, with the childish, moon-like face of a born comedian, he applied himself to the work with the extravagant solemnity of a minor poet mouthing his own perfumed verses at a literary dinner.
From Joan Thursday by Louis Joseph Vance
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.
