fatten

[ fat-n ]

verb (used with object)

1. to make fat.
2. to feed (animals) abundantly before slaughter.
3. to enrich:

   to fatten the soil; to fatten one's pocketbook.

4. Cards.
   1. Poker. to increase the number of chips in (a pot).
   2. Pinochle. to play a card that scores high on (a trick) expected to be taken by a partner.

verb (used without object)

1. to grow fat.

fatten

/ ˈfætən /

verb

1. to grow or cause to grow fat or fatter
2. tr to cause (an animal or fowl) to become fat by feeding it
3. tr to make fuller or richer
4. tr to enrich (soil) by adding fertilizing agents

Derived Forms

• ˈfattening, adjective
• ˈfattenable, adjective
• ˈfattener, noun

Other Words From

• fatten·a·ble adjective
• fatten·er noun
• over·fatten verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of fatten¹

First recorded in 1545–55; fat + -en ¹

Example Sentences

The ones that make it to the ocean fatten up on plankton and then head back upriver to spawn in the same creek where they were born.

From Time

When guests asked for more vegetarian options, Anju responded with dishes including wangmandu, big crisp dumplings fattened with Impossible Meat and finished with a racy chile crunch.

From Washington Post

Tortoises begin digging burrows, bears fatten up for the winter, and Popular Science writers turn to a steady diet of hot chocolate and cheesy pasta dishes.

From Popular-Science

The big bet of One Medical and companies like it is that greater spending on primary care will fatten their bottom lines while reducing overall health costs for their clients.

From Washington Post

All told, the upgrades have cut the building’s energy usage by about 40%, saved its owners more than $4 million every year and played a part in attracting high-value tenants that have fattened the building’s bottom line.

From Time

We should judge innovators not on whether they fatten our wallets, but whether their products enrich our lives.

From The Daily Beast

The Drug Enforcement Administration partners with local police forces to fatten budgets with seizures from dealers.

From The Daily Beast

So where are the angry headlines and government initiatives to fatten up our jockeys?

From The Daily Beast

Past thirty all men begin to dry up or fatten, and he was certainly a lean person.

From Project Gutenberg

There is no more depraved class of people in the world than those human vultures who fatten on the shame of innocent young girls.

From Project Gutenberg

He also observed the disposition to fatten in individuals, and used only such as were conspicuous in this respect.

From Project Gutenberg

I would deplete the government—forage, as it were, on the enemy—thereby to fatten my purse.

From Project Gutenberg

Why that wordIs rich in promise, in the action bankrupt.What faculty of mine, save dream-fed pride,Can these things fatten?

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• augment
• broaden
• build up
• swell