Puffy means swollen and soft-looking. Puffy eyes, a puffy face, puffy from crying.
It describes fluid gathering under the skin rather than fat, which is why puffy eyes come from sleep, salt and crying and go down within hours. Of clothing it means full and gathered: puffy sleeves. Of a cloud it means rounded and soft. Note puffiness; and that puff is imitative of a short breath, which is where the whole family comes from.
1adjectivepuffySwollen and soft-looking.
“Her eyes were red and puffy from crying all night.”
2adjectivefullFull and gathered, of clothing.
“She wore a white dress with puffy sleeves that made her look like a princess.”
puffy is a quality of swelling.
Proto-West Germanic
*puf(f)- — to blow, puff
Old English
pyf — a blast of wind, puff
Middle English
puff
English
puff
English, today
puffy
From puff + -y. puff comes from Middle English puff, puf, from Old English pyf (“a blast of wind, puff”), from Proto-West Germanic puf(f)- (“to blow, puff”), of imitative of the sound origin. Cognate with Dutch puf (“puff, wind, fart”), Middle Low German puf, pof (“puff”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA