chubby
- 01 A2 Elementary
slightly fat in a way that looks healthy or cute, especially used for children or faces.
describing a person who is somewhat overweight but in a rounded, soft, or aesthetically pleasing way.
Simple“The baby had lovely chubby cheeks that everyone wanted to squeeze.”
In context“The toddler's chubby legs made it difficult for him to run without wobbling, much to the amusement of his parents.”
PitfallHe is a chubby man. He is a bit chubby.While 'chubby' is softer than 'fat', it can still be sensitive; using 'a bit' or 'a little' makes it more polite.
Recorded since 1611, from chub (“short, thick fish species used as bait"; used metaphorically since 1558 for "lazy person”), an assibilated form of cub (“a lump, heap, mass”) and cob, from Middle English *cubbe (found only in derivative cubbel (“a block to which an animal is tethered”)), from Old Norse kubbr, kumbr (“block, stump, log”) and/or Old Norse kumben (“stumpy”), equivalent to chub + -y. Cognate with dialectal Swedish kubbug (“fat, plump, chubby”). More at chub.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.