puffy

adjective

ˈpə-fē 

puffier; puffiest

1

a

: swollen in size : bloated

puffy lips

… Hagrid gazed at him for a moment through his puffy, blackened eyes, apparently taken aback.

—J. K. Rowling

… who was … blind drunk, her voice slurry and her face puffy.

—Edna O'Brien

also : chubby

Fatty Hicks, the shrill and puffy son of Nat, flapped his hand at the beautiful stranger …

—Sinclair Lewis

b

: having a puffed up form or appearance : soft, light, and fluffy

puffy white clouds

a puffy bun

puffy hair

It is very difficult to shake hands when you're wearing ski mittens. They're so puffy and fat it's like shaking hands with giant marshmallows.

—Ann M. Martin

Not far away is a Georgian bakery where we found long, puffy loaves of wonderfully crisp bread.

—Jeffrey Steingarten

2

: blowing in puffs : gusty

a strong, puffy wind

3

: characterized by vanity or ostentation : pompous, showy

puffy rhetoric

All of my small, puffy pride at being the skipper of a tiny unit in a great nation victorious over the forces of evil seemed to blow away before the drunken racket of those three thousand men.

—Louis Auchincloss

puffiness

ˈpə-fē-nəs 

noun

Symptoms include nausea and vomiting, muscle weakness, headache and disorientation, as well as bloating and puffiness in the face and fingers.

—Susan Gilbert

Examples of puffy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Either way, the large, wiry flame control is designed for easy adjustment, even with puffy ski gloves on. —New Atlas, 15 Aug. 2025

Mosquito bites appear as puffy red bumps, with a red dot or blister in the center. —Sacbee.com, 13 Aug. 2025

Anyone who slides her laptop out of one of these bright, colorful and retro puffy bags certainly can. —Alex Apatoff, People.com, 6 Aug. 2025

The pita on the Saturn was puffy, chewy and pocked with toasty bubbles from the grill, just like before. —Rachel Bernhard, jsonline.com, 29 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1594, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Rhymes for puffy

• buffy
• fluffy
• scruffy
• stuffy