Fat, v. i. To grow fat, plump, and
fleshy.
An old ox fats as well, and is as good, as a
young one.
Mortimer.Fat (?), n. [See Vat,
n.] 1. A large tub, cistern,
or vessel; a vat. [Obs.]
The fats shall overflow with wine and
oil.
Joel ii. 24.
2. A measure of quantity, differing for
different commodities. [Obs.] Hebert.
Fat, a. [Compar.
Fatter (?); superl. Fattest (?).]
[AS. fǣtt; akin to D. vet, G. fett,
feist, Icel. feitr, Sw. fet, Dan. fed,
and perh. to Gr. pi^dax spring, fountain,
pidy`ein to gush forth, pi`wn fat, Skr.
pi to swell.] 1. Abounding with
fat; as: (a) Fleshy; characterized by
fatness; plump; corpulent; not lean; as, a fat man; a
fat ox. (b) Oily; greasy; unctuous;
rich; -- said of food.
2. Exhibiting the qualities of a fat animal;
coarse; heavy; gross; dull; stupid.
Making our western wits fat and
mean.
Emerson.
Make the heart of this people fat.
Is. vi. 10.
3. Fertile; productive; as, a fat
soil; a fat pasture.
4. Rich; producing a large income; desirable;
as, a fat benefice; a fat office; a fat
job.
Now parson of Troston, a fat living in
Suffolk.
Carlyle.
5. Abounding in riches; affluent;
fortunate. [Obs.]
Persons grown fat and wealthy by long
impostures.
Swift.
6. (Typog.) Of a character which
enables the compositor to make large wages; -- said of matter
containing blank, cuts, or many leads, etc.; as, a fat take; a
fat page.
Fat lute, a mixture of pipe clay and oil for
filling joints.
Fat (?), n. 1.
(Physiol. Chem.) An oily liquid or greasy substance
making up the main bulk of the adipose tissue of animals, and widely
distributed in the seeds of plants. See Adipose tissue, under
Adipose.
☞ Animal fats are composed mainly of three distinct
fats, tristearin, tripalmitin, and triolein,
mixed in varying proportions. As olein is liquid at ordinary
temperatures, while the other two fats are solid, it follows that the
consistency or hardness of fats depends upon the relative proportion
of the three individual fats. During the life of an animal, the fat
is mainly in a liquid state in the fat cells, owing to the solubility
of the two solid fats in the more liquid olein at the body
temperature. Chemically, fats are composed of fatty acid, as stearic,
palmitic, oleic, etc., united with glyceryl. In butter fat, olein and
palmitin predominate, mixed with another fat characteristic of
butter, butyrin. In the vegetable kingdom many other fats or
glycerides are to be found, as myristin from nutmegs, a glyceride of
lauric acid in the fat of the bay tree, etc.
2. The best or richest productions; the best
part; as, to live on the fat of the land.
3. (Typog.) Work. containing much
blank, or its equivalent, and, therefore, profitable to the
compositor.
Fat acid. (Chem.) See Sebacic
acid, under Sebacic. -- Fat series,
Fatty series (Chem.), the series of the
paraffine hydrocarbons and their derivatives; the marsh gas or
methane series. -- Natural fats
(Chem.), the group of oily substances of natural
occurrence, as butter, lard, tallow, etc., as distinguished from
certain fatlike substance of artificial production, as paraffin. Most
natural fats are essentially mixtures of triglycerides of fatty
acids.
Fat, v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Fatted (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
atting (?).] [OE. fatten, AS. fǣttian.
See Fat, a., and cf. Fatten.] To
make fat; to fatten; to make plump and fleshy with abundant food; as,
to fat fowls or sheep.
We fat all creatures else to fat
us.
Shak.