belly

UK /ˈbɛli/ US /ˈbɛli/
noun 5verb 3

Definitions

noun

1

The abdomen (especially a fat one).

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

2

stomach (an organ in animals that stores food in the process of digestion)

My belly was full of wine.

3

uterus (a reproductive organ of therian mammals in which the young are conceived and develop until birth)

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

4

The lower fuselage of an airplane.

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

5

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

[…] I cried by reason of mine affliction vnto the Lord, and hee heard mee; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voyce.

verb

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

To swell and become protuberant; to bulge or billow.

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

The halliards twanged against the tops, the bunting bellied broad,

3

To cause to swell out; to fill.

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

A breeze which had crossed a thousand miles of wheat-lands bellied her taffeta skirt in a line so graceful, so full of animation and moving beauty, that the heart of a chance watcher on the lower road tightened to wistfulness over her quality of suspended freedom.

Your note

not saved
0 chars