He sat with his hands folded over his paunch.
He used to be very thin but now he has a slight paunch.
Recent Examples on the WebStill — the slim build, though it’s now accented with a slight paunch.—Mitchell S. Jackson, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2023 And after conferring with Haynes, Melton decided to gain 40 pounds for the role, smoothing out his sharp jawline and adding a suburban-dad paunch.—Kyle Buchanan, New York Times, 26 Nov. 2023 My bullet had hit behind the shoulder and exited the paunch.—Will Brantley, Field & Stream, 7 Sep. 2023 He’s played by Slattery’s Mad Men compatriot Jon Hamm with a bit of a scruff, a bit of a paunch, and a touch of melancholy.—Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 June 2023 This was a small motormouth Italian man with a slight paunch, charming to his core, decked out with rings, and sporting an unruly mop of kinky hair.—Corbin Smith, Rolling Stone, 8 Apr. 2023 Working out is part of his contribution to Ukraine’s all-hands-on-deck war effort: The National Guardsman expects to be sent eastward to the battlefields soon and doesn’t want to take his paunch with him for the fight against Russia’s invasion force.—Ella Lee, USA TODAY, 11 June 2022 Working out is part of his contribution to Ukraine's all-hands-on-deck war effort: The National Guardsman expects to be sent eastward to the battlefields soon and doesn't want to take his paunch with him for the fight against Russia's invasion force.—John Leicester, ajc, 11 June 2022 Pathak, a short, mustached man with the paunch of 28 years’ service in the Indian police, wrote that his office in the island capital of Port Blair had received an e-mail two days earlier from the U.S. consulate in Chennai, 850 miles away on the mainland.—Alex Perry, Outside Online, 24 July 2019
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'paunch.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Anglo-French *panche, pance, from Latin pantic-, pantex
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