étoffer
French, verb/e.tɔ.fe/
étoffer is spelled É-T-O-F-F-E-R (7 letters) and appears about once in every 1 million words in written French, the 33,160th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Étoffer is a French verb meaning “to stuff (a pillow, food)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Garnir de ce qui est nécessaire”.
What does étoffer mean in English?
verb
- 1
to stuff (a pillow, food)
- 2
to upholster
- 3
to fill out
- 4
to pad out; to flesh out (give something more substance)
- 5
to fill out (to get plumper)
Je grandis, je grossis, je m'étoffe.
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Garnir de ce qui est nécessaire. 2. Garnir, confectionner, en mettant toute l’étoffe nécessaire. 3. Farcir, fourrer de farce. 4. Renforcer, donner de la consistance.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of étoffer
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- étoffant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- étoffé participle past
- étoffe first-person indicative present
- étoffes indicative present second-person
- étoffons first-person indicative plural
- étoffez indicative plural present
- étoffent indicative plural present
- étoffais first-person imperfect indicative
- étoffait imperfect indicative singular
- étoffions first-person imperfect indicative
- étoffiez imperfect indicative plural
- étoffaient imperfect indicative plural
- étoffai first-person historic indicative
- étoffas historic indicative past
- étoffa historic indicative past
- étoffâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce étoffer?
- /e.tɔ.fe/
- \e.tɔ.fe\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is étoffer in French?
étoffer appears about once in every 1 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).