Dictionary

fatten en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• [ˈfæʔn̩]
• /ˈfætən/

Etymology

From fat + -en.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to be fat or fatter.
   • In that classroom full of oily potato-chip-fattened adolescents, she was everyone’s ideal of translucent perfume-advertisement femininity. 1969, Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, published 2010, Part 1, Chapter 4:
   • And if the mat[t]er be too little, the vertue of digestion fayleth, and the bodye is dryed, and if the matter and meate be moderate, the meats is well digested, and the bodye fattened, the heart comforted, kinde heate made more, the humors made temperate, & wit made cleere: 1582, Stephen Batman, transl., Batman vppon Bartholome his Booke De Proprietatibus Rerum, London: Thomas East, Book 6, Chapter 25, p. 82:
   • We must fatten the turkey in time for Thanksgiving.
2. (intransitive, of a person or animal) To become fat or fatter.
   • The Laplanders, possessing a country where corn will not grow, make bread of the inner bark of trees; and Linneus reports, that swine there fatten on that food […] 1774, Henry Home, Lord Kames, “Sketches of the History of Man”, in Sketch, volume 1, Dublin: James Williams, 2, pp. 49-50:
   • He gradually fattened in the five years after getting married.
   • His soul was fattening and congealing into a gross grease, plunging ever deeper in its dull fear into a sombre threatening dusk […] 1916, James Joyce, chapter III, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 127:
   • Mushrooms fatten in the warm September rain. 1955, J. P. Donleavy, chapter 6, in The Ginger Man, New York: Dell, published 1965, page 43:
3. (transitive) To make thick or thicker (often something containing paper, especially money).
   • […] stirred by the air / That freshened from the window, these ascended ⁠/ In fattening the prolonged candle-flames, / Flung their smoke into the laquearia, / Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling. 1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part II. A Game of Chess.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, →OCLC, page 18:
   • It was the impotence of the money, and of all the pent-up warlike fancies that had earned it, to do anything but elaborate the wardrobe and fatten the financial portfolios of the owners of Empire Comics that so frustrated and enraged him. 2000, Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, New York: Random House, Part 3, Chapter 2, p. 177:
   • “You horrible old man, you’ve always tried to turn Erik into a slave, to fatten your pocketbook! […]” 1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXIII, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC, page 401:
   • The news spread, about the bastard caterer who was toying with their religious sentiments, trampling on their beliefs, polluting their beings, all for the sake of fattening his miserable wallet. 1995, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, London: Faber & Faber, published 1997, Part 5, p. 241:
4. (intransitive) To become thick or thicker.
   • The pencil-line of light by his feet fattened to a bar. Alan looked around and saw Norris Ridgewick. 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:
   • A broad river of white paper rushed constantly up from the cylinder and leaped into a mangling chaos of machinery whence it emerged a second later, cut, printed, folded and stacked, sliding along a board with a hundred others in a fattening sheaf. 1929, Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, London: Heinemann, published 1930, Part 2, Chapter 22:
5. (transitive) To make (soil) fertile and fruitful.
   • 1612, Joseph Hall, Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holie Storie, London: Sa. Macham, Volume 1, Book 4, p. 333, As the riuer of Nilus was to Egypt in steed of heauen to moisten and fatten the earth; so their confidence was more in it then in heauen;
   • The earth is fattened with our dead; She swallows more and doth not cease: Therefore her wine and oil increase And her sheaves are not numberèd; 1850, Christina Rossetti, “A Testimony”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, published 1862, page 163:
   • to fatten land
6. (intransitive) To become fertile and fruitful.
   • These hostile Fields shall fatten with thy Blood. 1700, “The First Book of Homer’s Ilias”, in John Dryden, transl., Fables Ancient and Modern, London: Jacob Tonson, page 205:

Forms

Deriveds

unfattenable · fattening · refatten · fatten the curve · overfatten · fatten up · fattenable · fattener · nonfattened · unfattened

Synonyms

enrich · put on weight · gain weight

Translations (132)

sq trash (to become fatter) · grc πιαίνω (to cause to be fatter) · ru отка́рмливать (to cause to be fatter) · ar أَسْمَنَ (to cause to be fatter) · mk дебели (to cause to be fatter) · ug ئەتلەندۈرمەك (to cause to be fatter) · sq trrash maj (gheg) (to cause to be fatter) · de sich mästen (to become fatter) · ug سەمرىمەك (to become fatter) · bg пълнея (to become fatter) · pl utyć (to become fatter) · gl cebar (to cause to be fatter) · el παχαίνω (to cause to be fatter) · bg надебелея (to become thick or thicker) · de dick werden (to become fatter) · mi whakamōmona (to cause to be fatter) · bg угоя (to cause to be fatter) · tr yağlanmak (to become fatter) · it ingrassare (to cause to be fatter) · cs ztloustnout (to become fatter) · tr kilo almak (to become fatter) · de mästen (to cause to be fatter) · it ingrassare (to become fatter) · ko 살찌우다 (to cause to be fatter) · uk відгодо́вувати (to cause to be fatter) · ug ئەتلەنمەك (to become fatter) · tr semizlemek (to become fatter) · cs vykrmovat (to cause to be fatter) · ko 살찌다 (to become fatter) · got 𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (to cause to be fatter) · dsb kjarmiś se (to become fatter) · dlm engrassur (to become fatter) · bg гоя (to cause to be fatter) · pl tyć (to become fatter) · gl engordar (to cause to be fatter) · bg напълнявам (to become fatter) · pt engordar (to become fatter) · es engordar (to become fatter) · el παχαίνω (to become fatter) · cs tloustnout (to become fatter) · egy w-S-A-G42 (to cause to be fatter) · tr semirmek (to become fatter) · io grasigar (to cause to be fatter) · izh lihoittua (to become fatter) · ro se îngrășa (to become fatter) · la sagīnō (to cause to be fatter) · fi lihota (to become fatter) · tr semizlenmek (to become fatter) · nl verdikken (to become fatter) · ga tit chun feola (to become fatter) · ar سَمَّنَ (to cause to be fatter) · ga ramhraigh (to become fatter) · grc παχύνω (to cause to be fatter) · pt engordar (to cause to be fatter) · ga ramhraigh (to cause to be fatter) · ru жире́ть (to become fatter) · bg обогатя (to make soil fertile and fruitful) · ga tit chun meáchain (to become fatter) · bg угоявам (to cause to be fatter) · es cebar (to cause to be fatter) · de zunehmen (to become fatter) · ug ئەت قونماق (to become fatter) · hu hízik (to become fatter) · bg надебелявам (to become fatter) · bg затлъстея (to become fatter) · bg напълнея (to become fatter) · izh lihhoa (to become fatter) · tr şişmanlamak (to become fatter) · et rammustama (to cause to be fatter) · fi lihottaa (to cause to be fatter) · cs vykrmit (to cause to be fatter) · tr semirtmek (to cause to be fatter) · ang mæstan (to cause to be fatter) · et nuumama (to cause to be fatter) · gl encaldar (to cause to be fatter) · tr beslemek (to become fatter) · gl engordar (to become fatter) · bg удебеля (to make thick or thicker) · et rasvuma (to become fatter) · es engordar (to cause to be fatter) · nl vetmesten (to cause to be fatter) · pl tuczyć (to cause to be fatter) · tr yağ bağlamak (to become fatter) · fi lihoa (to become fatter) · de dicker werden (to become fatter) · el χοντραίνω (to become fatter) · fr grossir (to become fatter) · sq aj (to become fatter) · cs přibírat (to become fatter) · tr etlenmek (to become fatter) · et tüsenema (to become fatter) · grc σιτεύω (to cause to be fatter) · ja 太る (to become fatter) · vi vỗ béo (to cause to be fatter) · bg обогатявам (to make soil fertile and fruitful) · ca engreixar (to cause to be fatter) · el χοντραίνω (to cause to be fatter) · dsb kjarmiś (to cause to be fatter) · bg затлъстявам (to become fatter) · ro îngrășa (to cause to be fatter) · ota سمیزلنمك (to become fatter) · id menggemukkan (to cause to be fatter) · hu hizlal (to cause to be fatter) · tr beslemek (to cause to be fatter) · es cebarse (to become fatter) · ca engreixar-se (to become fatter) · ru потолсте́ть (to become fatter) · cs přibrat (to become fatter) · bg удебелявам (to make thick or thicker) · pt cevar (to cause to be fatter) · tr şişmanlatmak (to cause to be fatter) · ru толсте́ть (to become fatter) · bg надебелея (to become fatter) · nl vervetten (to become fatter) · la farciō (to cause to be fatter) · bg дебелея (to become fatter) · ota سمرمك (to become fatter) · uk відгодува́ти (to cause to be fatter) · ru откорми́ть (to cause to be fatter) · rup ngrash (to become fatter) · sv göda (to cause to be fatter) · bg надебелявам (to become thick or thicker) · sv tjockna (to become fatter) · ru разжире́ть (to become fatter) · fr engraisser (to cause to be fatter) · tl tumaba (to become fatter) · nl uitzetten (to become fatter) · oc engraissar (to cause to be fatter) · pl utuczyć (to cause to be fatter) · ar سَمِنَ (to become fatter) · ga beathaigh (to cause to be fatter) · de fett werden (to become fatter)