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Belly

//ˈbɛli// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The abdomen (especially a fat one).

    "You've grown a belly over Christmas! Time to join the gym again."

  2. 2
    the underpart of the body of certain vertebrates such as snakes or fish wordnet
  3. 3
    stomach (an organ in animals that stores food in the process of digestion)

    "My belly was full of wine."

  4. 4
    a protruding abdomen wordnet
  5. 5
    uterus (a reproductive organ of therian mammals in which the young are conceived and develop until birth) countable

    "Before I formed thee in the bellie, I knew thee; […]"

Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    the region of the body of a vertebrate between the thorax and the pelvis wordnet
  2. 7
    The lower fuselage of an airplane.

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

  3. 8
    the hollow inside of something wordnet
  4. 9
    The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part).

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

  5. 10
    a part that bulges deeply wordnet
  6. 11
    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.
  7. 12
    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.
Verb
  1. 1
    To position one’s belly; to move on one’s belly.

    "Bellying forward to the edge of the clearing, he found Hans, lying on his face, feathered with arrows like a porcupine."

  2. 2
    swell out or bulge out wordnet
  3. 3
    To swell and become protuberant; to bulge or billow. intransitive

    "The Pow'r appeaſ'd, with Winds ſuffic'd the Sail, / The bellying Canvaſs ſtrutted with the Gale; […]"

  4. 4
    To cause to swell out; to fill. transitive

    "Your breath of full consent bellied his sails; […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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).

Etymology 2

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).

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