fattening

Everyday

1. (adjective) Likely to make you put on weight, usually because it has lots of fat or sugar. tree →
2. (verb) Making an animal or person fatter, especially farm animals before they are sold. tree →

In the lessons

In health lessons, fattening foods such as chips, sweets and fizzy drinks are fine sometimes but should not be eaten every day. On farms, farmers fatten cattle, pigs or geese. In fairy tales, the witch in «Hansel and Gretel» was fattening Hansel. Phrases: «fattening food», «fattening up».

Examples

• Cakes are tasty but fattening. tree →
• Fizzy drinks are fattening because of the sugar. tree →
• The farmer is fattening the lambs on fresh grass. tree →
• The witch was fattening Hansel up in a cage. tree →
• Nan says I need fattening up after being ill. tree →
• Fried snacks are more fattening than fruit. tree →
• He killed the other two geese for dinner, but built a little shed for Mimi in one of his rooms, under the pretence of fattening her under his own eye. tree →

Note

Double «t»: fatten, fattening. No food is «fattening» by itself in small amounts; it is about how much and how often. Be careful: comments about other people's weight can be hurtful.