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

One way to circumvent the problem of lack of cost savings is to better target reimbursement by stratifying subgroups of obese patients into those expected to benefit the most versus those for whom the return isn’t as good. —Joshua P. Cohen, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025

The problem that Let’s Move meant to solve—approximately one in three children was overweight or obese—was serious, but the vibe was cool-mom fun. —Tom Bartlett, The Atlantic, 1 Sep. 2025

Trainers yelled and put down obese contestants. —Randy Myers, Mercury News, 30 Aug. 2025

Additionally, most participants in the study were obese and diabetic, which means the results may not be applicable to all patients with hidradenitis suppurativa. —Angelica Stabile, FOXNews.com, 28 Aug. 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