He sat with his hands folded over his paunch. He used to be very thin but now he has a slight paunch.

Recent Examples on the Web

To see the feeble jointure of his hip and his paunch. Katherine Dunn, The New Yorker, "The Resident Poet," 4 May 2020

However, hit a bone, the paunch, or a lot of fat, and the wound will be nasty but superficial. Richard Mann, Field & Stream, "The 10 Best Black Bear Cartridges," 17 Sep. 2019

After five movies, the T. rex now evokes the soulful pathos of seeing a once-beloved action star trying to keep up with the new kids, but with a little too much paunch. Todd Vanderwerff, Vox, "5 things to know about Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," 5 June 2018

Why not kill two of these annoying-ass birds with one stone by making some friends and staving off that postgrad paunch at the same time? Clay Skipper, GQ, "Is the Gym a Good Place to Make Friends? An Investigation," 6 May 2018

The burly mustachioed butcher had his bloody apron tied tightly over his paunch and was standing in the doorway, inadvertently blocking my way in. Anissa Helou, Bon Appetit, "The Camel Trek: In Search of an Unexpected Delicacy," 4 May 2018

Hall, 53, is a soft-spoken snow-removal worker with a slight paunch, a salt-and-pepper beard and a matched set of .45 caliber pistols. Kirk Johnson, The Seattle Times, "Car Stolen in Anchorage? Enter Floyd the Thief Chaser," 13 Apr. 2018

Joe wears a thin shirt streaked with three different colors of spills and shorts that sit under his paunch of a belly. jsonline.com, "CHAPTER 8: "I'LL SEE HER IN HEAVEN"," 18 Oct. 2017

The Platonic ideal of underwear changed from the barely there thong to an oversized brief with a navel-hugging elastic waistband and a silhouette designed to hold in paunch. Shira Feder, Vox, "The rise of granny panties," 5 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'paunch.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.