pursy

adjective

1. Out of breath; short of breath, especially due to fatness.

   Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease, And pursy insolence shall break his wind With fear and horrid flight.

   now breathless wrong

2. Fat and short.

   Now I will give you a Picture of this Wretch: She is a broad, squat, pursy, fat Thing, quite ugly, if any thing human can be so called […]

Where it comes from

From Middle English pursyf (“short of breath, asthmatic”), probably from Old French pousser (“to push; to breathe with difficulty”); see French poussif (“wheezy”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry pursy (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← pursuivantpurvey →

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