pear-shaped

See also: pearshaped

English

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

pear-shaped (comparative more pear-shaped, superlative most pear-shaped)

  1. Having a shape of a (typical western) pear, or in cross-section, like the cross-section of a pear.
    Synonyms: lecythiform, piriform, pyriform
    • 2009, Lars Svensson, Collins Bird Guide, page 210:
      Single egg laid directly on ledge, pear-shaped to prevent rolling off[.]
    1. Having gynoid fat distribution, not android fat distribution.
      Synonym: gynoid
      Coordinate terms: android, apple-shaped
      pear-shaped obesity versus apple-shaped obesity
      • 1936 March 21, Glen Innes Examiner, NSW, page 7, column 3:
        Just as one should take sitting-up exercises every day to keep one's figure from going pear-shaped in the hips, one should spend at least a little time, even if it is only very little, sloughing off mental flabbiness by thinking, studying or just reading something that requires an exercising effort of the mind to understand, memorise or digest.
      • 2015 November 9, Melissa Healy, “Pear-shaped vs. apple trumps body mass index as a measure of risk”, in Los Angeles Times‎[1], archived from the original on 11 November 2015:
        Even at BMIs above 30, where obesity begins, men and women whose waist-to-hip ratio identified them as more pear-shaped were less likely to die -- of any cause and of cardiovascular causes -- than those with similar BMIs who were apple-shaped.
  2. (of a vocal or musical tone) rich, mellow, sonorous
  3. (slang, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Wrong, awry, usually in the phrase go pear-shaped.

Derived terms

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References

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