horizontally challenged
1
8.8
- adjective
- /həˈrɪzənˌtally ˈʧælɪndʒd/
- Offensive
- She jokingly referred to herself as horizontally challenged after the holidays.
Examples
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Many clothing brands now offer stylish options for the horizontally challenged.
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The fitness club welcomes everyone, including those who are horizontally challenged.
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He joked that he was horizontally challenged after eating three slices of cake.
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Many people prefer the term horizontally challenged instead of 'overweight'.
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He joked that he was horizontally challenged after eating three slices of cake.
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Many clothing brands now offer stylish options for the horizontally challenged.
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She jokingly referred to herself as horizontally challenged after the holidays.
Synonyms
1
9.1
A person who is clumsy or who has trouble with their weight
Antonyms
How Overweight
Surface Forms
Morphology
horizontally + challenged
The phrase is a humorous euphemism that plays on 'horizontal(ly)' (relating to width) and the pattern 'X-challenged' (having difficulty), so a learner who knows the constituents might infer it refers to being wide or broad. However, mapping that inference to the idiomatic meaning 'overweight' requires cultural/pun knowledge (e.g. knowing the joke pattern like 'vertically challenged'), so the relation is metaphorical and only partially predictable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Horizontally challenged is a playful euphemism that breaks the words into horizontally (wide, side-to-side) and challenged (having difficulty) to create a funny image of someone who needs more horizontal room. One popular joke says this image led to the phrase being used to mean 'overweight' or 'obese'.