flesh out

1. 1.

   make fat or plump

   “We will plump out that poor starving child”

   Synonymsfattenfatfill outplumpplump outfatten outfatten up

   Broaderchange
2. 2.

   add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing

   “She elaborated on the main ideas in her dissertation”

   Synonymselaboratelucubrateexpatiateexpositenlargeexpandexpounddilate

   Broaderclarify

   Narrowerdetailset forthexemplifyspecify
3. 3.

   become round, plump, or shapely

   “The young woman is fleshing out”

   Synonymsroundfill out

   Broadergain

Questions about flesh out

What does flesh out mean?

flesh out means "make fat or plump". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for flesh out?

Close synonyms include fatten, fat, fill out, plump, plump out. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is flesh out a common word?

flesh out is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.