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

Protects your smile—keep teeth white and gums looking healthy, less puffy, sore, and red. —Violeta Valdés, Vogue, 28 Apr. 2025

Caffeine targets puffy eyes, glycyrrhetinic acid helps address dullness and sensitivity, and a synthetic peptide blend called Matrixyl 3000 improves firmness. —Macaela MacKenzie, Glamour, 24 Apr. 2025

But on a recent afternoon, walking through a pasture in the shadow of Mt. Shasta with puffy white clouds drifting across a cobalt blue sky, Griffin recalled one of his worst days on the job. —Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 21 Apr. 2025

There’s no shortage of food trucks and booths serving favorites like puffy tacos, funnel cakes, and more. —Jill Robbins, Southern Living, 16 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1594, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Rhymes for puffy

• buffy
• fluffy
• scruffy
• stuffy