Pimple
//ˈpɪmp(ə)l// noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An inflamed (raised and colored) spot on the surface of the skin that is usually painful and fills with pus.
"I had to pop that embarrassing pimple, it was huge and red and on the tip of my nose."
- 2 a small inflamed elevation of the skin; a pustule or papule; common symptom in acne wordnet
- 3 An annoying person. slang
"He's such a pimple! I wish he'd stop being so irritating!"
- 4 Scotch (whisky) Cockney, slang
Verb
- 1 To develop pimples.
Example
More examples"That must be the reddest pimple in history."
Etymology
Early Modern English pimple, pumple, from Middle English pymple, pympyl, of uncertain origin but probably a nasalized variant of Old English *pipel, *pypel, from Old English piplian, pyplian (“to break out in pimples, show eruptions”), probably related to Latin papula (“pimple, pustule”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pap- (“pock mark, nipple”)). Akin to Old English pipliġende (“having shingles”).
Related phrases
More for "pimple"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.