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What's the meaning of ポンポンしている in the following sentence? Context: a girl is touching his friend's boxing gloves and then says:
へーなんかポンポンしててカワイー
Of all the meanings I found on dictionaries (cheerleaders' pom-poms as a noun, bang-bang, one after another, outspokenly as adverbs/onomatopoeia) none seems to fit the context. Could it mean that they are soft like cheerleaders' pom-poms, and therefore cute (even though I don't think boxing gloves are that soft)? Thank you for your help!
In this context, 「ぽんぽん/ポンポン」 would mean "plump". It has absolutely nothing to do with "pom-poms".
「ポンポンしている」＝「ふくれている」 or 「ふっくらしている」
「ぱんぱん」 would be a synonym.
To comment on your question title, we do not really say 「ポンポンする」; We say「ポンポンしている」.
ポンポン is pong-pong or pompon.
It's one of onomatopoeia and mimetic words like ping-pong or ding-dong or tick-tack.
Sounds like bouncy like this.
