fatten up
verb
Simple meaning
To cause to gain weight using feeding.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fatuhnuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfætəˈnʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To cause to gain weight by means of feeding.
intransitive
To become fat or fatter by gaining weight.
transitivefigurative
To make bigger; to expand.
Make fat or plump
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To cause to gain weight by means of feeding.
Used this way, fatten up is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.