Dictionary

freshman fifteen en · NOUN

Etymology

From freshman + fifteen.

Meanings

1. (Canada, US, colloquial) The amount of body weight (thought to be 15 pounds) gained by a student during their first year of college.
   • I gained the dreaded "freshman fifteen," whereas Ophi became unnaturally thin from eating too little. 1997, Tali Edut, with Dyann Logwood and Ophira Edut, “HUES Magazine: The Making of a Movement”, in Leslie Heywood, Jennifer Drake, editors, Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 85:
   • Having gained the regulation freshman fifteen meant that my skirt that day fit. 1999 August 4, Alice Sebold, Lucky, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, →OL, page 37:
   • The freshman fifteen is the stuff of urban legend — a horror story that wreaks havoc on the psyches of high school seniors everywhere, for fear that it too might touch their lives, leaving them crying in the Sears dressing room shopping for pants two sizes larger. 2012 August 9, Tiana Kupinski, “Getting mean on the Freshman 15”, Sun Belt Collegiate, in Explorer:

Forms

Synonyms

fresher spread · fresher five