belly
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɛli/
rhymes: -ɛli
Forms: form: bellies
form: bellie
Etymology: 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 connection 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).
Senses: examples: text: You've grown a belly over Christmas! Time to join the gym again.
glosses: The abdomen (especially a fat one).
examples: text: My belly was full of wine.
glosses: stomach (an organ in animals that stores food in the process of digestion)
examples: text: Before I formed thee in the bellie, I knew thee; […]
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 1:5:
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
synonyms: matrix
metra
uterus
womb
glosses: uterus (a reproductive organ of therian mammals in which the young are conceived and develop until birth)
examples: text: There was no heat, and we shivered in the belly of the plane.
ref: 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 454:
glosses: The lower fuselage of an airplane.
examples: text: the belly of a flask, muscle, violin, sail, or ship
text: […] 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.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jonah 2:2:
text: 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 […]
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
glosses: The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part).
glosses: 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.
topics: architecture
glosses: 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.
Synonyms: word: abdomen
word: belly
word: midriff
word: stomach
word: tum
word: tummy
word: tum-tum
word: ventrum
Hyponyms: word: beer belly
word: beer gut
word: gut
word: paunch
word: potbelly
Meronyms: word: happy trail
word: navel
Derived terms: Bali belly
beer belly
bellyache
belly-aching
belly bag
bellyband
belly band
belly-band
belly boat
belly breathing
belly buster
bellybutton
belly button
belly-button
belly button ring
belly chain
bellycheer
bellycrawl
belly dance
belly-dance
belly dancer
belly-dancer
belly dancing
belly-dumper
belly dumper
belly-flop
belly flop
bellyflop
belly flopper
bellyful
belly-god
belly itcher
belly landing
bellylaugh
belly laugh
belly-laugh
bellyless
bellylike
bellyload
belly of the beast
belly of the whale
belly ring
bellyscraper
belly shirt
belly sweetbread
belly-tember
belly-timber
belly-timmer
belly trap
belly-up
belly-up peach
belly up to the bar
belly vengeance
belly-wahk
belly-wark
bellywark
bellywash
belly whop
belly whopper
blue belly
bluebelly
Buddha belly
Buddha belly bamboo
copperbelly
corona belly
Delhi belly
double belly buster
drum belly
empathy belly
firebelly
fire in one's belly
fire in the belly
fishbelly
go belly-up
gorbelly
jelly belly
kettlebelly
lower than a snake's belly
one's belly thinks one's throat has been cut
pinch-belly
pinch-belly vengeance
pink belly
plead the belly
pork belly
porridge belly
possum belly
pot-belly
pot belly
potbelly
prune belly syndrome
pufferbelly
redbelly
sawbelly
shadbelly
sharpbelly
slow belly
snakebelly
sourbelly
sowbelly
speckled-belly
sugar belly
swagbelly
swillbelly
swill-belly
tenterbelly
tun-belly
underbelly
whip-belly
whip-belly vengeance
whistle-belly vengeance
whitebelly
wolf in one's belly
yellow belly
yellowbelly
Related terms: abdomen
bouk
have eyes bigger than one's belly
midriff
stomach
tummy