puffy

1 of 2

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

also : somewhat fat : 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

puffiness

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noun

puff·​i·​ness ˈpəfēnə̇s 

-fin-

plural -es

: the quality or state of being puffy

Examples of puffy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

But that gas could come in the form of the doughnut, or as puffy clouds that fill in patches of the black hole’s sky, as opposed to the shell of gas around a black hole star. — Quanta Magazine, 14 Sep. 2026

There are the Vamps, inflated shoes born of the puffy Y2K lineage of skate classics like Osirises or Etnies, taken to theatrical levels of bulbous. — Julissa James, Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2026

Erin drapes her white puffy coat over her shoulders, collects the lawyer for Deux Moi who just happens to be her husband, and walks out onto the wet asphalt of Chinatown. — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 9 Sep. 2026

The spray also helps eliminate frizz and resist humidity, so coarse hair looks polished rather than puffy after styling. — Polly Blitzer, Glamour, 9 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1598, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for puffy

• buffy
• fluffy
• scruffy
• stuffy