Pudgy means short and rather fat. Pudgy fingers, a pudgy face, pudgy little hands.
It is used most of babies and small children, where it is affectionate, and of adults, where it is not. It suggests softness and shortness together rather than size alone. Note podgy, which is the British form and commoner here, with pudgy commoner in America; and that both come from an obscure word pudge meaning something short and thick.
1adjectivepudgyShort and rather fat.
“The baby grabbed my finger with her pudgy little hand.”
synonyms: chubby, podgy
pudgy is a quality of plumpness.
Pudgy is pudge plus -y, or an alteration of pudsy. Pudge itself has no clear origin and appears only in these forms.
From pudge + -y, or an alteration of pudsy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA