fatten
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make fat.
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to feed (animals) abundantly before slaughter.
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to enrich.
to fatten the soil; to fatten one's pocketbook.
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Cards.
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Poker. to increase the number of chips in (a pot).
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Pinochle. to play a card that scores high on (a trick) expected to be taken by a partner.
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verb (used without object)
verb
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to grow or cause to grow fat or fatter
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(tr) to cause (an animal or fowl) to become fat by feeding it
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(tr) to make fuller or richer
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(tr) to enrich (soil) by adding fertilizing agents
Other Word Forms
- fattenable adjective
- fattener noun
- fattening adjective
- overfatten verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of fatten
Explanation
To fatten someone is to feed them until they become bigger and fatter. Your grandmother might see a tiny baby and say, "His mother needs to fatten him up!" A farmer might spend weeks trying to fatten his prize pigs before he sells them for meat, and you may visit relatives who keep cooking you delicious food in an attempt to fatten you up. Figuratively, you can also fatten things like your bank account, by making it larger. Before the 1550s, the verb form of this word was fat — and both fat and fatten come from the Old English word fætt, "fat or plump."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They are sold to feedlots that fatten them up before being shipped to slaughterhouses.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 20, 2026
He was a skinny teenager told to go to buy milkshakes to "fatten him up".
From BBC • Nov. 7, 2025
They lauded her history, beliefs and wit, such as when she was asked about student testing during a gubernatorial debate and replied, “You don’t fatten a hog by weighing it more often.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 30, 2024
The Seahawks need to fatten up before staring down this quartet of stiff challenges: 49ers, Cowboys, 49ers, Eagles.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 17, 2023
Now he caught it and put it in a pen made of logs, to fatten.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
