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

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

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

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

During a concert in Nashville, Mr. Yow made a mock apology to the audience about his paunch, then executed some sit-ups mid-song. John Jurgensen, WSJ, "An Aging Punk Star’s Dilemma: Am I Too Old to Stage Dive?," 7 Dec. 2017

After years of rigorous weight training, plenty of former athletes end their playing days and subsequently let their once steely cores morph into paunches and their rock-hard biceps atrophy into flab. Gabriel Baumgaertner, SI.com, "Alfonso Soriano Is Taking His Retirement Weight Training Program Quite Seriously," 20 Sep. 2017

Unlike Parisian pooches though, one distinguishing characteristic about Philly pooches is their unmistakable paunches. Kimberly Garrison, Philly.com, "Philly's dogs overweight, like their owners," 1 Aug. 2017

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.