stomach
Americannoun
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stomachs
plural
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Anatomy, Zoology.
-
a saclike enlargement of the alimentary canal, as in humans and certain animals, forming an organ for storing, diluting, and digesting food.
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such an organ or an analogous portion of the alimentary canal when divided into two or more sections or parts.
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any one of these sections.
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Zoology. any analogous digestive cavity or tract in invertebrates.
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the part of the body containing the stomach; belly or abdomen.
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appetite for food.
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desire, inclination, or liking.
I have no stomach for this trip.
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Obsolete.
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spirit; courage.
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pride; haughtiness.
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resentment; anger.
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verb (used with object)
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stomachs,
present (3rd person singular)
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stomached,
past participle, past
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stomaching
present participle
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to endure or tolerate (someone or something).
I can't stomach your constant nagging.
- Synonyms:
- countenance, abide, stand, bear
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Obsolete. to be offended at or resent.
noun
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(in vertebrates) the enlarged muscular saclike part of the alimentary canal in which food is stored until it has been partially digested and rendered into chyme
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the corresponding digestive organ in invertebrates
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the abdominal region
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desire, appetite, or inclination
I have no stomach for arguments
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an archaic word for temper
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an obsolete word for pride
verb
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to tolerate; bear
I can't stomach his bragging
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to eat or digest
he cannot stomach oysters
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stomachsimple
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stomachssimple
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have stomachedperfect
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has stomachedperfect
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am stomachingprogressive
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are stomachingprogressive
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is stomachingprogressive
-
have been stomachingperfect progressive
-
has been stomachingperfect progressive
Past
-
stomachedsimple
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had stomachedperfect
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was stomachingprogressive
-
were stomachingprogressive
-
had been stomachingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stomach
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English stomak, from Latin stomachus “gullet, stomach,” from Greek stómachos originally, “opening”; akin to stoma
Explanation
The stomach is the organ of your body — kind of a big sac — that digests food. We also say people have a stomach for something unpleasant when they can handle it. Without a stomach, you'd be in trouble: that's where your food gets digested and turned into useful material your body can use for energy. If you ever got punched in the stomach or had a stomach ache, it can hurt a lot. Also, stomach can mean having a hunger, or at least tolerance, for something. If you can't stomach watching football, then you can't stand watching it. If you have a stomach for something, you can swallow it.
Vocabulary lists containing stomach
Nutrition and Digestion - Introductory
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Nutrition and Digestion - High School
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Nutrition and Digestion - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Roebuck was still lying on the tile floor, his stomach burning.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Steaming hot liquid can damage the cell lining of the food pipe on the way down to the stomach.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Vela Gonzalez complained for weeks of stomach pain and his legs were only getting more swollen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Facial fat grafting, up 39% in 2025 compared with the year prior, involves removing fat from elsewhere in the body, such as the stomach, via liposuction and then having it injected into the face.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
The queasy feeling in my stomach started to ease a little.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
The chief vet of Kenya's Wildlife Service, Dr Isaac Lekolool, told us that they had found traces of cyanide in samples taken from the elephants' stomachs.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Interestingly, the number of Chinook and coho salmon found in pike stomachs dropped over the past decade.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2026
Patients who went under the knife late last year are now debuting tighter skin, flatter stomachs and lifted eyelids to their social networks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026
Still, the threat of new competition could give investors in current U.S. car producers an uneasy feeling in their stomachs.
From Barron's ● Jan. 13, 2026
While everybody laughed, Grandpa walked up so close to Mr. Clem they just about touched stomachs.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Now, the market looks different: U.S. consumers have cooled on the technology, Chinese manufacturers have raced to dominate the market, and European carmakers have stomached tens of billions in write-downs after overcommitting to the segment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
The practice is stomached by managers who want to protect their actual pitchers from overuse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2025
McDonald's engineered a relatively smooth sale to Govor for an undisclosed fee, but stomached a non-cash charge of $1.4 billion and forfeited $300 million in annual operating income.
From Reuters ● Dec. 16, 2022
The players still went to practice every day, still pulled on the heavy pads, stomached every loss that brought all kinds of pain.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 21, 2017
He ridiculed my father: I stomached even that, though with great difficulty.
From Tales of a Traveller by Washington Irving
Inventory has improved slightly as some homeowners have lost patience and decided to move even if it means stomaching high rates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Yet many workers aren’t so sure; they’re having a hard time stomaching the uncertainty.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
“And, with transit not given the priority and service to get Angelenos to many destinations reliably, many are left stomaching higher gas prices instead.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2022
Well if you've got nobody to share it with because you're all alone and isolated then it takes some stomaching.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2021
At this moment, one of the enemy, who had been annoying us from a thicket some thirty paces from where I stood, not stomaching the grape, made a movement from his hiding-place.
From Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp Late a Lieut. in His Majesty's 87th Regiment by John Shipp
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
