Careful Words

fat (n.)

fat (v.)

fat (adj.)

Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.

  Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees.

John Milton (1608-1674): Tractate of Education.

Through life's dark road his sordid way he wends,

An incarnation of fat dividends.

Charles Sprague (1791-1875): Curiosity.

  Fat, fair, and forty.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): St. Ronan's Well. Chap. vii.

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,

Even there where merchants most do congregate.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act i. Sc. 3.

I am resolved to grow fat, and look young till forty.

John Dryden (1631-1701): The Maiden Queen. Act iii. Sc. 1.

The fat is in the fire.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iii.

Laugh and be fat.

John Taylor (1580?-1684). Title of a Tract, 1615.

  The liberal soul shall be made fat.

Old Testament: Proverbs xi. 25.

Let me have men about me that are fat,

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act i. Sc. 2.

A bard here dwelt, more fat than bard beseems.

James Thomson (1700-1748): The Castle of Indolence. Canto i. Stanza 68.

  Every fat must stand upon his bottom.

John Bunyan (1628-1688): Pilgrim's Progress. Part i.

A little round, fat, oily man of God.

James Thomson (1700-1748): The Castle of Indolence. Canto i. Stanza 69.

  There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.

  Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. ix. 1784.

  A feast of fat things.

Old Testament: Isaiah xxv. 6.

  Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked.

Old Testament: Deuteronomy xxxii. 15.

And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed

That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.