belly laugh
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of belly laugh
First recorded in 1920–25
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.
His older sister, Averie, was a protector who “beat up everybody for me from age 3 to like 15,” Domingo says, letting out an extended belly laugh.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026
Reportedly, she was asked to sing her hit “Firework,” which, considering her proximity to some of the most combustible substances in existence, might have tested God’s urge for a belly laugh.
From Salon • Apr. 17, 2025
If “Strangelove” was a belly laugh, “Fail Safe” was a muffled cry.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 6, 2024
The Legion, of course, riffs off of DC Comics’ Legion of Doom, complete with the Riddler and Gorilla Grodd wearing the famed dictator’s moustache, a scene more than worth a belly laugh.
From Washington Times • Apr. 5, 2023
“You see, Chaplain, I’m right. You can’t give me a belly laugh, can you?”
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
