pursy
1 Americanadjective
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short-winded, especially from corpulence or fatness.
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corpulent or fat.
adjective
adjective
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short-winded
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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
The others, Ledru-Rollin, Louis Blanc, Schœlcher, the hope of the Republicans under the Empire, returned from exile shallow, pursy, rotten to the core with vanity and selfishness, without courage or patriotism, disdaining the Socialists.
From History of the Commune of 1871 by Lissagary, P.
His nose was insignificant, his mouth small and pursy.
From The Destroying Angel by Vance, Louis Joseph
As he put a query to him his uncle's pursy lips showed a tendency to twitch.
From A Master of Deception by Marsh, Richard
On the other side of her was an individual in a civic chain, whose fat, pursy, apoplectic appearance, and nose of the colour of an Orleans plum, thoroughly realised my mental picture of the Bailie.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 by Various
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.
