puffy

adjective

ˈpə-fē 

puffier; puffiest

1

a

: swollen in size : bloated

puffy lips

… Hagrid gazed at him for a moment through his puffy, blackened eyes, apparently taken aback.

—J. K. Rowling

… who was … blind drunk, her voice slurry and her face puffy.

—Edna O'Brien

also : chubby

Fatty Hicks, the shrill and puffy son of Nat, flapped his hand at the beautiful stranger …

—Sinclair Lewis

b

: having a puffed up form or appearance : soft, light, and fluffy

puffy white clouds

a puffy bun

puffy hair

It is very difficult to shake hands when you're wearing ski mittens. They're so puffy and fat it's like shaking hands with giant marshmallows.

—Ann M. Martin

Not far away is a Georgian bakery where we found long, puffy loaves of wonderfully crisp bread.

—Jeffrey Steingarten

2

: blowing in puffs : gusty

a strong, puffy wind

3

: characterized by vanity or ostentation : pompous, showy

puffy rhetoric

All of my small, puffy pride at being the skipper of a tiny unit in a great nation victorious over the forces of evil seemed to blow away before the drunken racket of those three thousand men.

—Louis Auchincloss

puffiness

ˈpə-fē-nəs 

noun

Symptoms include nausea and vomiting, muscle weakness, headache and disorientation, as well as bloating and puffiness in the face and fingers.

—Susan Gilbert

Examples of puffy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Although customers rave about the cheese enchiladas and puffy tacos, the breakfast taco lineup is what makes this place stand out. —Edmund Tijerina, Bon Appétit, 27 Feb. 2025

Other dishes at brunch include more conventional but also puffy pancakes with French butter and maple syrup and Crab Benedict with crab cake, avocado, smoked trout roe and dill hollandaise. —Laurie Werner, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2025

Shaw, 66, walked the catwalk in a puffy black dress with chain details across the chest and around the bottom of the skirt. —Catherine Santino, People.com, 24 Feb. 2025

Try the Southern-style pad thai topped with a puffy omelet and don’t skip the coconut ice cream for dessert. Sunday: Bites, hikes and little pigs Fuel up this morning at Little King Coffee, a year-old hot spot with ties to the Companion Hospitality folks. —Amber Turpin, The Mercury News, 24 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1594, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Rhymes for puffy

• buffy
• fluffy
• scruffy
• stuffy