pear-shaped

See also: pearshaped

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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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.

2. (slang, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Wrong, awry, usually in the phrase go pear-shaped.

Derived terms

• go pear-shaped
• play it pear-shaped
• turn pear-shaped

Translations

shaped like a pear

• Belarusian: грушападо́бны (hrušapadóbny)
• Bulgarian: крушовиден (krušoviden)
• Dutch: peervormig (nl)
• French: en forme de poire, piriforme (fr)
• German: birnenförmig (de)
• Greek: αχλαδόσχημος (el) (achladóschimos)
• Hungarian: körte alakú
• Italian: a forma di pera
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pæreformet

• Polish: gruszkowaty (pl)
• Russian: грушеви́дный (ru) (gruševídnyj), грушеобра́зный (ru) (grušeobráznyj)
• Spanish: en forma de pera, piriforme (es)
• Swedish: päronformad (sv)
• Ukrainian: грушоподі́бний (hrušopodíbnyj)

References

• “pear-shaped”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.