Definition of OBESE

Examples of obese in a Sentence

providing medical treatment for obese patients the basset hound was so obese that its stomach touched the floor

Recent Examples on the Web

Nearly one in three children is obese or overweight. — Caryn M. Sullivan, Twin Cities, "Caryn Sullivan: The real magic at The Fort happens in the afternoon," 28 July 2019 Loneliness takes a physical toll, according to researchers, and is worse for longevity than being obese or physically inactive. — Kelsey Gee, WSJ, "Houseparty Chat App Co-Founder Sees ‘Loneliness Epidemic’ on the Horizon," 22 May 2019 Giacobini and colleagues initially gathered blood samples from four groups of pregnant women in their second trimester: obese and nonobese women without PCOS, and obese and nonobese women with PCOS. — Jennifer Couzin-frankel, Science | AAAS, "Scientists may be closer to understanding a mysterious but common cause of female infertility," 14 May 2018 Klein, for instance, has tested whether removing body fat with liposuction or surgically excising visceral fat in obese patients would reduce risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. — Claudia Wallis, Scientific American, "The Belly Fat Battle," 1 May 2018 In their article, The New York Times points out that some medical equipment is often not able to accommodate some obese patients. — Brittney Mcnamara, Teen Vogue, "People Described Fat-Shaming By Doctors," 19 Apr. 2018 The risks were highest for women with no history of heart disease or diabetes, and women who were obese or African-American. — Sandee Lamotte, CNN, "Want to live longer? You may want to ditch these drinks," 3 Sep. 2019 Pemex workers who are overweight or obese and decrease their weight by 10% annually will also get the bonus, and there are metrics for blood glucose levels, blood pressure and cholesterol, according to the contract seen by Bloomberg. — Amy Stillman / Bloomberg, Time, "At Mexican Oil Company, Workers Offered 'Health Incentive' Bonus For Weight Loss, Trim Waistlines," 2 Aug. 2019 The share of American adults classified as obese increased from 13 percent in 1960 to almost 40 percent in 2016. — Marlon Graf, STAT, "Chronic diseases are taxing our health care system and our economy," 31 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'obese.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for obese

borrowed from Latin obēsus "fat, stout," past participle of *obedere, perhaps meaning originally "to gnaw," from ob- "against" + edere "to eat" — more at ob-, eat entry 1

Note: Etymologically obēsus should mean "thin, emaciated," if the sense of the unattested verb *obedere was "to eat away, gnaw," as implied by its components. The Roman writer Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae 19.7.3) pointed this out and adduced a passage from the poet Laevius (who is known only from a handful of quotations from his works made by other authors), where the word apparently has the meaning "wasted." Presumably the word went reanalysis after the extinction of the verb. The grammarian Pompeius Festus construed the derivation phrasally as "made fat as if as a result of eating" ("pinguis quasi ob edendum factus").

Learn More about obese