PATTSU-RI ぱっつり
Meanings
1. Describes something, especially clothing, stretched or filled so tightly that it looks close to bursting.
2. Describes hair or another thin material being cut sharply and decisively, often leaving a straight edge.
Examples
I put on these clothes for the first time in ages, and either I’ve gained weight or they’re stretched painfully tight.
久しぶりに服を着たら、私が太ったのか、ぱっつりしてしまった。
I asked my mother to cut my hair, and she chopped my bangs straight across.
母親に散髪を頼んだら、前髪をぱっつり切られてしまった。
Dogmatic Opinion
This may be dialectal or at least not especially standard.
For hair—particularly bangs—the much more familiar expression is PATTSUN, as in MAEGAMI PATTSUN: bangs that look as though they were cut straight across in a single stroke.
Sense 1 may be connected in feeling with PATSU-PATSU, PATSUN-PATSUN, or TSUPPA-RI. I imagine pressure from inside pushing outward, making the surface tight and slightly ready to burst.
So the two senses share a kind of taut, sharp boundary: stretched to the limit in one case, cut into a crisp line in the other.
Related Words
For Japanese Learners
Stretched tight, bursting at the seams, skin-tight, cut straight across, and cut in one clean line may fit. For bangs, “blunt-cut bangs” is also natural English. PATTSU-RI is not a high-frequency standard form, so context should guide the translation.
