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

And 1 in 5 young people in the U.S. are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control. —The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 18 Aug. 2025

In Britain, one in four boys aged 10 to 11 is obese, while teenage boys are grappling with body-image concerns. —Adam Crafton, New York Times, 17 Aug. 2025

People who are considered obese, for example, are at greater risk of developing cancer or cardiovascular disease but have higher chances of survival than patients of normal or less than normal weight, Cuomo reports. —Noah Lyons, Mercury News, 14 Aug. 2025

The report warns that 19.7% of children ages 2-19 in the U.S. are considered obese. —Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 14 July 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