Bellywark

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A pain in the stomach; bellyache; colic; gripe. Midlands, Northern-England, countable, uncountable

    ""Nay, nay," replied Charley, "I'm noen soea weel this morning, I've had th' bellywark vary bad, an' I'm feared it 'ell start again if I knock abaet, I'd rather ne quiet.""

  2. 2
    A shot in marbles made with the taw held against the belly. Yorkshire, countable, uncountable

Example

More examples

""Nay, nay," replied Charley, "I'm noen soea weel this morning, I've had th' bellywark vary bad, an' I'm feared it 'ell start again if I knock abaet, I'd rather ne quiet.""

Etymology

From belly + wark (“pain”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.