Dictionary

flabby en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈflæb.i/

Etymology

From a variant of flappy, from flap (“to hang loose”). Compare English dialectal flapsy (“flabby”), Middle Dutch flabbe (“a slap in the face; a fan-blade; a hair ribbon; a wagging tongue”), Middle Low German flabbe (“a gaping mouth; a chatterbox”), Danish flab (“the jaw; cheeks; a malapert”), Swedish flabb, fläff (“the hanging underlip of an animal; guffaw; driveller”), German Flabbe (“a gob; muzzle”).

Meanings

1. Yielding to the touch, and easily moved or shaken; hanging loose by its own weight; lacking firmness; flaccid.
   • The strings of some violins when up to pitch are loose and flabby; some are very taut and hard. 1961, The Violin Makers' Journal - Volume 5, page 71:
   • Chassis of 1950s-1970s bikes are flabby tubular structures, often weak to the point of lacking straight-line stability! 2008, Kevin Cameron, Sportbike Performance Handbook, →ISBN, page 135:
   • My attention was accidentally drawn to this aid, some five or six years ago, while attending a lady (multipara) in her confinement, who suffered from umbilical hernia, with large flabby abdomen. 1867 December 28, John Wades, “External Manual Pressure during Labour”, in The British Medical Journal, volume 2, page 601:
   • A neglected gap was all the gate it had, and the first glance at the place was enough to let you see the flabby devil was running that show. 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 210:
2. (of wine) Having a slight lack of acidity; having mild sweetness.
   • A flabby wine might be described as a wine in which nothing stands out. 1996, Emile Peynaud, Jacques Blouin, The Taste of Wine: The Art Science of Wine Appreciation, →ISBN, page 229:
   • An extremely hot region will give you flabby wine. 2008, Thomas Pellechia, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Winery, →ISBN, page 103:
3. (of writing, usually) overwrought.
   • As you revise, focus on eliminating flabby expressions. This takes conscious effort. As one expert copyeditor observed, “Trim sentences, like trim bodies, usually require far more effort than flabby ones. 2014, Mary Ellen Guffey, Dana Loewy, Business Communication: Process and Product, →ISBN, page 178:
4. Which forms a surjection from the domain to every open subset of the codomain.
   • a flabby sheaf on a paracompact space

Forms

Antonyms

muscled (antonym(s) of “yielding to the touch”) · taut (antonym(s) of “yielding to the touch”)

Deriveds

flab · flabbiness · unflabby · flabbily

Synonyms

flat (having a slight lack of acidity)

Translations (65)

nl slap (yielding to the touch) · cs povadlý (yielding to the touch) · ru дряблый (yielding to the touch) · cy llibin (yielding to the touch) · gl foufeiro (yielding to the touch) · grc πλαδαρός (yielding to the touch) · et lõtv (yielding to the touch) · mk мли́тав (yielding to the touch) · es bofo (yielding to the touch) · gl oupado (yielding to the touch) · cs povislý (yielding to the touch) · de wabbelig (yielding to the touch) · mk сви́снат (yielding to the touch) · mi kōwariwari (yielding to the touch) · es lacio (yielding to the touch) · mi kūreherehe (yielding to the touch) · hi पिलपिला (yielding to the touch) · bg мек (yielding to the touch) · mi ngehengehe (yielding to the touch) · ar مُتَرَهِّل (yielding to the touch) · da slap (yielding to the touch) · mi ngehe (yielding to the touch) · fr ramolli (yielding to the touch) · it moscio (yielding to the touch) · ga feolmhar (yielding to the touch) · la flaccus (yielding to the touch) · sv slapp (yielding to the touch) · id lembek (yielding to the touch) · gl fole (yielding to the touch) · fa شل (yielding to the touch) · bg отпуснат (yielding to the touch) · hu petyhüdt (yielding to the touch) · hu ernyedt (yielding to the touch) · fr flasque (yielding to the touch) · cs ochablý (yielding to the touch) · gl balofo (yielding to the touch) · ca fofo (yielding to the touch) · de quabbelig (yielding to the touch) · lv ļumīgs (yielding to the touch) · pdt schlaup (yielding to the touch) · mi pīpī (yielding to the touch) · hi थुलथुल (yielding to the touch) · su biyé (yielding to the touch) · nb slaskete (yielding to the touch) · eo molaĉa (yielding to the touch) · fa سست (yielding to the touch) · de schlabberig (yielding to the touch) · gl furrico (yielding to the touch) · fi vetelä (yielding to the touch) · sv sladdrig (yielding to the touch) · nl slap (wine: having a lack of acidity) · fi veltto (yielding to the touch) · nl flabberig (yielding to the touch) · de flach (wine: having a lack of acidity) · it flaccido (yielding to the touch) · mi ngohungohu (yielding to the touch) · pt flácido (yielding to the touch) · mk мек (yielding to the touch) · hi गुदगुदा (yielding to the touch) · ga liobarnach (yielding to the touch) · de schwabbelig (yielding to the touch) · da slatten (yielding to the touch) · es fofo (yielding to the touch) · gl gorolizo (yielding to the touch) · ca flàccid (yielding to the touch)