barrel-bellied

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English

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Etymology

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From barrel +‎ bellied.

Adjective

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barrel-bellied (comparative more barrel-bellied, superlative most barrel-bellied)

  1. Having a large prominent belly reminiscent of a barrel.
    • 1850 August 3, Charles Dickens, Household Words, volume 1, page 446:
      Two other hunters—next to him in presence of mind and energy—threw their arms round the great barrel-bellied infant, and hoisted him into the boat, which nearly capsized with the weight and struggle.
    • 2016 July 14, “Boris Johnson: How Britain's new foreign secretary has insulted the world”, in bbc.co.uk[1]:
      Yes, that Boris Johnson, the tousle-haired, barrel-bellied engineer of the UK's exit from the EU.
    • 2016 August 20, Lindy McDowell, “Which was worse: the robbery or someone thinking that woman was dead ringer for you?”, in Belfast Telegraph[2], archived from the original on 2023-04-25:
      But how much more galling for a woman whose trademark throughout her long career has been her elegance, her age-defying looks and her meticulous grooming to find out that the Gloria “lookalike” who spearheaded the scam is revealed on CCTV footage to be a barrel-bellied old bat in drawstring trousers and gutties.
    • 2020 September 15, Mark Cocker, “Country diary: appreciating the minutiae of a lizard’s life”, in The Guardian:
      Another pleasure earlier in summer is to watch the barrel-bellied gravid females warming their unborn embryos, which emerge directly as babies rather than as eggs (hence the species’ old name, viviparous lizard).

Translations

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