belly

The belly of a pregnant woman.

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English beli, from Old English bælġ, from Proto-Germanic *balgiz. Compare German Balg, Dutch balg. Probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bhle- (“to swell, blow up”). See also bellows.

PronunciationEdit

• IPA^(key): /bɛli/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛli

NounEdit

belly (plural bellies)

1. The abdomen.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dunglison to this entry?)

2. The stomach, especially a fat one.
3. The womb.
   • Bible, Jer. i. 5

     Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.

4. The lower fuselage of an airplane.
   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 454:

     There was no heat, and we shivered in the belly of the plane.

5. The part of anything which resembles the human belly in protuberance or in cavity; the innermost part.

   the belly of a flask, muscle, sail, or ship

   • Bible, Jonah ii. 2

     Out of the belly of hell cried I.

6. (architecture) The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back.

Derived termsEdit

Usage notesEdit

• Formerly, all the splanchnic or visceral cavities were called bellies: the lower belly being the abdomen; the middle belly, the thorax; and the upper belly, the head.

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

• have eyes bigger than one's belly
• abdomen
• bouk
• stomach
• tummy

VerbEdit

belly (third-person singular simple present bellies, present participle bellying, simple past and past participle bellied)

1. To position one's belly.
2. (intransitive) To swell and become protuberant; to bulge.
   • Dryden

     The bellying canvas strutted with the gale.

3. (transitive) To cause to swell out; to fill.
   • Shakespeare

     Your breath of full consent bellied his sails.

Derived termsEdit

• belly up