belly
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- //ˈbɛli//
The abdomen (especially a fat one).
noun
- 1
The abdomen (especially a fat one).
You've grown a belly over Christmas! Time to join the gym again.
- 2
stomach (an organ in animals that stores food in the process of digestion)
My belly was full of wine.
- 3
uterus (a reproductive organ of therian mammals in which the young are conceived and develop until birth)
Before I formed thee in the bellie, I knew thee; […]
- 4
The lower fuselage of an airplane.
There was no heat, and we shivered in the belly of the plane.
- 5
The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part).
the belly of a flask, muscle, violin, sail, or ship
[…] I cried by reason of mine affliction vnto the Lord, and hee heard mee; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voyce.
At last I got my knife and cut the halyards. The peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the water […]
- 6
The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part). The main curved portion of a knife blade.
- 7
The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part). The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *bʰólǵʰis Proto-Germanic *balgiz Proto-West Germanic *balgi Old English bielġ Middle English bely English belly Inherited from Middle English bely, beli, bali, below, belew, balyw, from Old English bielġ (“bag, pouch, bulge”), from Proto-West Germanic *balgi, *balgu, from Proto-Germanic *balgiz, *balguz (“skin, hide, bellows, bag”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell, blow up”). Cognate with Dutch balg, German Balg, Danish bælg, Old Irish bolg, Welsh bol. Doublet of bellows, blague, bulge, and budge. See also bellows. For the belly — bellows relation, compare typologically Macedonian мев (mev, “abdomen, belly; bellows”). Also compare Ancient Greek φῦσα (phûsa, “bellows; bladder; ...”), Latin venter — vēsīca, Russian пу́зо (púzo) — пузы́рь (puzýrʹ), пузырёк (puzyrjók).
verb
- 1
To position one’s belly; to move on one’s belly.
Bellying forward to the edge of the clearing, he found Hans, lying on his face, feathered with arrows like a porcupine.
- 2
To swell and become protuberant; to bulge or billow.
The Pow'r appeaſ'd, with Winds ſuffic'd the Sail, / The bellying Canvaſs ſtrutted with the Gale; […]
The halliards twanged against the tops, the bunting bellied broad,
There were trees whose trunks bellied into huge swellings.
1917 rev. 1925 Ezra Pound, "Canto I" winds from sternward Bore us onward with bellying canvas ...
- 3
To cause to swell out; to fill.
Your breath of full consent bellied his sails; […]
A breeze which had crossed a thousand miles of wheat-lands bellied her taffeta skirt in a line so graceful, so full of animation and moving beauty, that the heart of a chance watcher on the lower road tightened to wistfulness over her quality of suspended freedom.
Forms
- plural
- bellies
- past tense
- bellied
- past participle
- bellied
- present participle
- bellying
- third person singular
- bellies