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

In a study of adults who were overweight or obese, increasing protein intake to around 0.45 to 0.6 grams per pound of body weight (g/lb) during weight loss helped reduce muscle loss.1 For example, someone weighing 150 pounds would need about 68 to 89 g of protein per day. —Jamie Johnson, Verywell Health, 28 Aug. 2025

According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, roughly 53% of dogs and 58% of cats in the United States are overweight or obese. —Lisa Bloch, Mercury News, 26 Aug. 2025

The new guidelines suggest possibly adding newer therapies such as GLP-1 medications for some patients with high blood pressure who are also overweight or obese. —Stephanie Innes, AZCentral.com, 26 Aug. 2025

Custer said overweight and obese patients with type 2 diabetes are typically more resistant to weight loss than those without the condition. —Patrick Wingrove, USA Today, 25 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