the front or under part of a vertebrate body from the breastbone to the pelvis, containing the abdominal viscera; the abdomen.
the stomach with its adjuncts.
appetite or capacity for food; gluttony.
the womb.
the inside or interior of anything: the belly of a ship.
a protuberant or bulging surface of anything: the belly of a flask.
Anatomy. the fleshy part of a muscle.
the front, inner, or under surface or part, as distinguished from the back.
the front surface of a violin or similar instrument.
a bulge on a vertical surface of fresh concrete.
the underpart of the fuselage of an airplane.
verb (used with object),bel·lied,bel·ly·ing.
to fill out; swell: Wind bellied the sails.
verb (used without object),bel·lied,bel·ly·ing.
to swell out: Sails bellying in the wind.
to crawl on one's belly: soldiers bellying through a rice paddy.
Verb Phrases
belly up, Informal.
to approach closely, especially until one is in physical contact: to belly up to a bar.
to curry favor from: Would you have gotten the promotion if you hadn't bellied up to the boss?
Idioms
go/turn belly up, Informal. to come to an end; die; fail: After years of barely surviving on donations, the neighborhood social club finally went belly up.
Origin of belly
before 950;Middle Englishbely,Old Englishbelig, belg bag, skin; cognate with GermanBalg,Gothicbalgs,Old Norsebelgr sack; akin to Welshbol(a), boly,Irishbolg sack, belly, bellows, Serbo-Croatianblàzina,Latvianpabàlsts,Avestanbarəziš-,Persianbālish cushion
"to swell out," 1620s, from belly (n.). Related: Bellied; bellying. Old English belgan meant "to be or become angry" (a figurative sense). A comparable Greek verb-from-noun, gastrizein, meant "to hit (someone) in the belly."
belly
n.
Old English belg, bylg (West Saxon), bælg (Anglian) "leather bag, purse, bellows," from Proto-Germanic *balgiz "bag" (cf. Old Norse belgr "bag, bellows," bylgja "billow," Gothic balgs "wineskin"), from PIE *bholgh-, from root *bhelgh- "to swell," an extension of *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell" (see bole). Meaning shifted to "body" (late 13c.), then focused to "abdomen" (mid-14c.). Meaning "bulging part or concave surface of anything" is 1590s. The West Germanic root had a figurative or extended sense of "anger, arrogance" (cf. Old English bolgenmod "enraged;" belgan (v.) "to become angry").
Indo-European languages commonly use the same word for both the external belly and the internal (stomach, womb, etc.), but the distinction of external and internal is somewhat present in English belly/stomach; Greek gastr- (see gastric) in classical language denoted the paunch or belly, while modern science uses it only in reference to the stomach as an organ. Fastidious avoidance of belly in speech and writing (compensated for by stretching the senses of imported stomach and abdomen, baby-talk tummy and misappropriated midriff) began late 18c. and the word was banished from Bibles in many early 19c. editions. Belly punch (n.) is attested from 1811.
