flabby
Americanadjective
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hanging loosely or limply, as flesh or muscles; flaccid.
-
having such flesh.
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lacking strength or determination.
adjective
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lacking firmness; loose or yielding
flabby muscles
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having flabby flesh, esp through being overweight
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lacking vitality; weak; ineffectual
Other Word Forms
- flabbily adverb
- flabbiness noun
Etymology
Origin of flabby
1690–1700; apparently expressive alteration of earlier flappy, with same sense; flap, -y 1; compare late Middle English flabband (attested once), evidently with sense “flapping”
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.
But if poetry is about saying a lot in a little—the fine art of distillation—then by the end of its two-hour runtime “A Poet” comes off more like funny but flabby prose.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026
In a speech last week Sir Keir Starmer promised to make the "flabby" state more efficient and cut bureaucracy.
From BBC • Mar. 17, 2025
They are short, tall, flabby, lean, clean-shaven, bearded, bald and pony-tailed.
From New York Times • Nov. 27, 2024
About a year and a half ago, it occurred to me that if I didn’t start working out again, I’d be sliding into a sloppy, flabby late middle age.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 26, 2024
In the evenings, they started up a soccer game with crude wooden goalposts and a flabby ball.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
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.
