Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Somewhat fat and squat.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective UK
short andstout ;low andwide
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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At its heart, this attitude embrangles the concepts of "need" and "want"; those fubsy fuddy-duddies with griseous imaginations believe that words no longer in frequent use will never in the future be needed by English speakers and writers more nitid than themselves.
Archive 2008-10-01 Angry Professor 2008
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At its heart, this attitude embrangles the concepts of "need" and "want"; those fubsy fuddy-duddies with griseous imaginations believe that words no longer in frequent use will never in the future be needed by English speakers and writers more nitid than themselves.
A malison on the poor of spirit. Angry Professor 2008
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You prayed to the devil in Serpentine avenue that the fubsy widow in front might lift her clothes still more from the wet street.
Ulysses 2003
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Serpentine avenue Beelzebub showed me her, a fubsy widow.
Ulysses 2003
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There are the fubsy boys -- copied apparently from cherubim -- who, with glowing, distended cheeks, are simpering on the ceiling, _doing_ the tenor, with wide open mouths that would shame e'er a barn-door in the village; their red, stumpy fingers sprawling over the music which they are (not) reading.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 54, No. 338, December 1843 Various
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But look down that vista of charity children in slate coloured Quaker bonnets, stuck one against the other in drab, like pins in a paper, but not so bright; are they going to stand there for ever, with their governess at their head, looking as smug and fubsy as the squat house at the end?
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 385, August 15, 1829 Various
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You prayed to the devil in Serpentine avenue that the fubsy widow in front might lift her clothes still more from the wet street.
Ulysses James Joyce 1911
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Serpentine avenue Beelzebub showed me her, a fubsy widow.
Ulysses James Joyce 1911
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For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is their mother.
Songs from Books Rudyard Kipling 1900
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'But you, you fubsy old pig, must stay behind and work.'
Life's Handicap Rudyard Kipling 1900
brtom commented on the word fubsy
You prayed to the devil in Serpentine avenue that the fubsy widow in front might lift her clothes still more from the wet street.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
stpeter commented on the word fubsy
There's a building Manhattan that I used to call the fubs building -- for "fat, ugly, big, squat". Imagine my surprise when I discovered the meaning of fubsy. :-)
December 30, 2006
yarb commented on the word fubsy
"...and besides, she knows she is fubsy and frumpy, and simply cannot compete with dashing Hélène."
- Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor.
May 17, 2008
immerbeta commented on the word fubsy
The word embrangle (to confuse or entangle) won with 1,434 votes, while fubsy (short and stout) came in a distant second. Roborant (tending to fortify) and nitid (bright, glistening) failed to shine; they finished last, drawing roughly 550 votes between them.
- Hangman, Spare That Word: The English Purge Their Language, article from Time magazine
December 18, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word fubsy
"You laugh out loud and tell me what Angela Carter said about that 'fubsy beast': she thought he looked more like a pajama case than a tiger. I go away and look up the word fubsy. I've never heard it before."
Artful by Ali Smith, p 16
August 2, 2013