Pursiness

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being pursy.; Shortness of breath, especially due to fatness. uncountable

    "pursiness, Asthma, ǎtis. f."

  2. 2
    The state of being pursy.; Fatness, obesity. uncountable

    "1595, Thomas Lodge, A Fig for Momus, Epistle VI, cited in J. W. Lever, The Elizabethan Love Sonnet, London: Methuen, 1966, p. 150, You pray me to aduise, and tell you what Will take away your pursiness and fat,"

  3. 3
    The state of being pursy.; The state of being puckered. uncountable

    "When he smiled, the slight pursiness of his mouth disappeared, and a markedly irregular front tooth gave him a boyish air."

Synonyms

All synonyms
pursivenesspursiveness

Example

More examples

"1838, Robert Smith Surtees, Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 2nd edition, 1843, No. I, “The Swell and the Surrey,” p. 6, […] any slight degree of pursiness that the good steeds may have acquired by standing at livery in Cripplegate, or elsewhere, is speedily pumped out of them by a smart brush over the turf […]"

Etymology

From pursy + -ness.

Related phrases

shortness of breath

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.