tubby

English

Etymology

From tub +‎ -y. False cognate with chubby, even though they are often interchangeable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʌbi/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈstʊbi/

  Rhymes: -ʌbi

Adjective

tubby (comparative tubbier, superlative tubbiest)

1. stout, rotund
   • 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:

     Grace bent to her oars with a springing verve and force which made the tubby little boat draw towards the shore, the whispering lapse of water gliding under its sides all the while.

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     The clerk vanished, to be replaced a minute later by a tubby Indian with exhausted, visionary eyes.

2. Resembling a tub
3. sounding dull and without resonance or freedom of sound.

   a tubby violin

Derived terms

• tubbiness

Translations

stout, rotund

• Bulgarian: дундест (bg) (dundest), тантурест (bg) (tanturest)
• Catalan: rabassut (ca)
• French: dodu (fr), rondelet (fr)
• German: moppelig, pummelig (de), rundlich (de), dick (de)
• Hungarian: köpcös (hu)
• Maori: kunekune, takapū, pukunati
• Polish: baryłkowaty (pl)
• Spanish: gordito

resembling a tub

• German: fassartig (de), bauchig (de)

sounding dull

• German: dumpf (de)

Noun

tubby (plural tubbies)

1. (derogatory, slang, often used teasingly) An overweight person.

Derived terms

• Teletubby

Translations

an overweight person

• German: Dickerchen (de) n