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 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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
There were young women with puffy jackets and pompom hats, middle-aged women who could have been coming straight from a business lunch, young men furtively removing their black tactical gear under the cover of a tree to pull on red MAGA sweatshirts to pass as mere Trump supporters. Alec MacGillis, ProPublica, 6 Feb. 2025 Jacket This cropped puffer jacket is similar to Cher’s, with a shorter length and an oversized, puffy look. Rylee Johnston, Travel + Leisure, 6 Feb. 2025 So when the mercury dips between November and February, puffy jackets come out, hot pot restaurants get busier, and hot spring resorts fill with people taking advantage of the brief reprieve. Clarissa Wei, AFAR Media, 3 Feb. 2025 Lydia said in a confessional, referencing the giant, bulbous pink hat on her head, and the long, furry coat that also had large, puffy balls made of fabric dragging down by her heels. EW.com, 1 Feb. 2025 See all Example Sentences for puffy 

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1594, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Time Traveler
The first known use of puffy was circa 1594

Dictionary Entries Near puffy

Cite this Entry

“Puffy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/puffy. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.

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