obese

adjective

ō-ˈbēs 

: having excessive body fat

Synonyms

• plump
• fat
• overweight
• round

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

People with conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure or high cholesterol should also be careful, along with people who smoke, are very inactive, are obese or are sedentary. —Rebecca Powell, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025

Plus, sitting for prolonged periods is gaining more attention as a health risk, especially considering our obese society that contributes greatly to our epidemics of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. —Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 2 July 2025

Eli Lilly, which released initial data from the study in April, will unveil results from a separate trial on obese or overweight patients without diabetes later this year. —Annika Kim Constantino,ashley Capoot, CNBC, 25 June 2025

Researchers discovered that low-calorie diets were more common among obese and overweight patients. —Charna Flam, People.com, 5 June 2025

Word History

Etymology

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").

First Known Use

1651, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for obese

• apiece
• aris
• assise
• caprice
• cerise
• decease
• decrease
• eyepiece
• facepiece
• handpiece
• headpiece
• increase

Kids Definition

obese

adjective

ō-ˈbēs 

: very fat

obesity

ō-ˈbē-sət-ē

noun

Medical Definition

obese

adjective

ō-ˈbēs 

: having excessive body fat : affected by obesity