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stomach

nounverbcommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈstʌmək//
  • Canada//ˈstʌmək//
  • Canada//ˈstʌmɪk//
  • Australia//ˈstɐmək//
  • //ˈstʊmək//

An organ in animals that stores food in the process of digestion.

noun

  1. 1

    An organ in animals that stores food in the process of digestion.

    Our stomachs and livers have an enzyme known as alcohol dehydrogenase that breaks down ethanol to make it less toxic for our bodies, said Atlanta gastroenterologist Dr. Preston Stewart.

    A new study suggests people taking popular injected medications for weight loss, including Wegovy, Ozempic, Saxenda and Victoza, may be at higher risk for serious digestive problems such as stomach paralysis, pancreatitis, and bowel obstructions, compared with those taking other types of weight loss medications.

  2. 2

    informalThe belly.

    Why did you hit me in the stomach?

  3. 3

    obsoletePride, haughtiness.

    Sterne was his looke, and full of stomacke vaine, / His portaunce terrible, and stature tall […]

    He was a man / Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking / Himself with princes;

    This sort of crying[…] proceeding from pride, obstinacy, and stomach, the will, where the fault lies, must be bent.

  4. 4

    obsoleteAn appetite.

    a good stomach for roast beef

    You come not home because you have no stomach. / You have no stomach, having broke your fast.

    HOST. How say you sir, doo you please to sit downe? EUMENIDES. Hostes I thanke you, I haue no great stomack.

    If after seven hours' tarrying he shall have no stomach, let him defer his meal, or eat very little at his ordinary time of repast.

  5. 5

    figurativeA desire, an appetite (for something abstract).

    I have no stomach for a fight today.

    That he which hath no ſtomack to this fight, / Let him depart, his Paſport ſhall be made,

    At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I’m not working away on one of those.

  6. 6

    The part of a garment that covers a person's stomach.

    […] Mr. Sedley looking grand, with a crush opera-hat on one side of his head and his hand in the stomach of a voluminous white waistcoat.

Etymology

From Middle English stomak, from Old French estomac, from Latin stomachus, from Ancient Greek στόμαχος (stómakhos), from στόμα (stóma, “mouth”). Partially displaced native Old English maga, whence Modern English maw.

verb

  1. 1

    To tolerate (something), emotionally, physically, or mentally; to stand or handle something.

    I really can’t stomach jobs involving that much paperwork, but some people seem to tolerate them.

    I can't stomach her cooking.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo be angry.

    Let a man, though never so justly, oppose himself unto them that are disordered in their ways; and what one amongst them commonly doth not stomach at such contradiction, storm at reproof, and hate such as would reform them?

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo resent; to remember with anger; to dislike.

    O, my good lord, / Believe not all; or, if you must believe, / Stomach not all.

    The Lion began at first to shew his Teeth, and to Stomach the Affront.

    The Parliament sit in that body […] to be his counsellors and dictators, though he stomach it.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo turn the stomach of; to sicken or repel.

Forms

plural
stomachs
past tense
stomached
past participle
stomached
present participle
stomaching
third person singular
stomachs
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).