belly

English

The belly of a pregnant woman.

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛli/

• Audio (General American):

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• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -ɛli
• Hyphenation: bel‧ly

Noun

belly (plural bellies)

1. The abdomen, especially a fat one.

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

2. The stomach.

   My belly was full of wine.

3. The womb.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 1:5:

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

4. The lower fuselage of an airplane.
   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 454:

     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

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jonah 2:2:

     […] 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.

   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     At last I got my knife and cut the halyards. The peak dropped instantly, a great belly of loose canvas floated broad upon the water […]

   2. The main curved portion of a knife blade.
   3. (architecture) The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back.

Usage notes

• Formerly, all the splanchnic or visceral cavities were called bellies: the lower belly being the abdomen; the middle belly, the thorax; and the upper belly, the head.

Derived terms

• Bali belly
• beer belly
• bellyache
• belly-aching
• belly bag
• belly-band
• bellyband
• belly band
• belly boat
• belly breathing
• belly buster
• bellybutton
• belly button/belly-button
• belly button ring
• belly chain
• bellycheer
• bellycrawl
• belly dance/belly-dance
• belly dancer/belly-dancer
• belly dancing
• belly dumper
• belly-dumper
• belly-flop
• belly flop/bellyflop
• belly flopper
• bellyful
• belly-god
• belly itcher
• belly landing
• bellylaugh
• belly laugh/belly-laugh
• bellyless
• bellylike
• bellyload
• belly of the beast
• belly of the whale
• belly ring
• bellyscraper
• belly shirt
• belly-tember
• belly-timber
• belly-timmer
• belly-up
• belly-up peach
• belly up to the bar
• belly vengeance
• belly-wahk
• belly-wark
• bellywark
• bellywash
• belly whop
• belly whopper
• bluebelly
• blue belly
• Buddha belly
• Buddha belly bamboo
• copperbelly
• corona belly
• Delhi belly
• double belly buster
• drum belly
• empathy belly
• firebelly
• fire in one's belly
• fire in the belly
• fishbelly
• go belly-up
• gorbelly
• jelly belly
• kettlebelly
• lower than a snake's belly
• one's belly thinks one's throat has been cut
• pinch-belly
• pinch-belly vengeance
• pink belly
• plead the belly
• pork belly
• porridge belly
• possum belly
• potbelly
• pot belly
• pot-belly
• prune belly syndrome
• pufferbelly
• redbelly
• sawbelly
• shadbelly
• sharpbelly
• slow belly
• snakebelly
• sourbelly
• sowbelly
• speckled-belly
• sugar belly
• swagbelly
• swill-belly
• swillbelly
• tun-belly
• underbelly
• whip-belly
• whip-belly vengeance
• whistle-belly vengeance
• whitebelly
• wolf in one's belly
• yellowbelly
• yellow belly

 

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: bere
  • Aukan: bee
  • Saramaccan: bë́ë

Translations

abdomen — see also abdomen

• Afrikaans: maag (af)
• Aklanon: tiyan
• Albanian: bark (sq) m
• Amal: məlkai
• Amharic: ሆድ (hod)
• Arabic: بَطْن m (baṭn)

  Egyptian Arabic: بطن f (baṭn), كرش m (kirš)

  Hijazi Arabic: بطن f (baṭin), كرشة f (kirša) (fat belly)

  Moroccan Arabic: كرش m (kerš)

• Aragonese: pancha f
• Armenian: փոր (hy) (pʻor), որովայն (hy) (orovayn)
• Aromanian: pãntic, pãnticã, bicã, foale
• Ashkun: banī
• Assamese: পেট (pet)
• Asturian: barriga (ast) f
• Azerbaijani: göbək (az), qarın (az), qursaq (az)
• Baluchi: لاپ (láp)
• Basque: sabel
• Belarusian: жыво́т m (žyvót), бру́ха n (brúxa)
• Bengali: পেট (bn) (peṭ)
• Bhojpuri: पेट (pēṭ)
• Breton: kof (br) m
• Brunei Malay: parut
• Bulgarian: коре́м (bg) m (korém), шкембе (bg) (škembe), тумба́к (bg) m (tumbák)
• Burmese: ဗိုက် (my) (buik), ဝမ်း (my) (wam:)
• Carpathian Rusyn: бріх (brix)
• Catalan: buc (ca) m, abdomen (ca) m, panxa (ca) f, ventre (ca)
• Cebuano: tiyan
• Chepang: 'योङ्
• Chichewa: mimba
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 腹 (fuk¹), 腹部 (fuk¹ bou⁶), 肚 (tou⁵)

  Dungan: дўзы (dwzɨ)

  Eastern Min: 腹老 (bók-lō̤)

  Hakka: 肚屎 (tú-sṳ́)

  Hokkien: 腹 (zh-min-nan) (pak), 腹肚 (zh-min-nan) (pak-tó͘, bak-tó͘, pat-tó͘)

  Mandarin: 腹 (zh) (fù), 腹部 (zh) (fùbù), 肚子 (zh) (dùzi)

  Wu: 肚皮

• Classical Nahuatl: ihtetl
• Coptic:

  Bohairic: ϧⲏⲧ m (xēt), ⲛⲉϫⲓ f (neči)

  Sahidic: ϩⲏ m (hē)

• Czech: břicho (cs) n
• Dalmatian: viantro m
• Danish: bug c, mave (da) c
• Dutch: buik (nl) m
• Erzya: пеке (peke)
• Esperanto: ventro (eo)
• Estonian: kõht (et), vats (et)
• Even: ур (ur)
• Evenki: ур (ur)
• Faroese: búkur (fo) m, magi (fo) m
• Finnish: maha (fi), masu (fi), vatsa (fi)
• French: ventre (fr) m
• Friulian: vintri m, panze f, gradoan
• Galician: bandullo (gl) m, panza (gl) f, boxo m, andorga f, barriga (gl) f, tripa (gl) f
• Georgian: მუცელი (ka) (muceli)
• German: Bauch (de) m, Magen (de) m

  Alemannic German: Büdel m

• Gothic: 𐌵𐌹𐌸𐌿𐍃 m (qiþus)
• Greek: κοιλιά (el) (koiliá)

  Ancient: κοιλία f (koilía)

• Guaraní: py'a (gn)
• Haitian Creole: vant
• Hawaiian: ʻōpū
• Hebrew: בֶּטֶן (he) f (béten)
• Hindi: पेट (hi) m (peṭ), उदर (hi) m (udar)
• Hungarian: has (hu)
• Icelandic: magi (is) m, (childish) malli m
• Indonesian: perut (id)
• Ingrian: mako, prulli
• Interlingua: pancia, ventre
• Iranun: tian
• Irish: bolg m
• Italian: pancia (it) f, ventre (it) m
• Ivatan: vodek
• Japanese: 胃 (ja) (い, i), お腹 (ja) (おなか, o-naka), 腹 (ja) (はら, hara)
• Javanese: weteng (jv)
• Kapampangan: atian, atyan
• Kashubian: brzëch
• Kazakh: қарын (qaryn), құрсақ (qūrsaq), іш (ış)
• Khmer: ក្រពះ (km) (krɑpĕəh), ពុង (km) (pung), ពោះ (km) (pŭəh), ក្បាលពោះ (kbaal pŭəh)
• Kikuyu: nda
• Korean: 배 (ko) (bae)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: زگ (ckb) (zig), ورگ (wirg)

  Northern Kurdish: zik (ku) m

• Kyrgyz: курсак (ky) (kursak)
• Lao: ທ້ອງ (thǭng), ໂພ່ນ (phōn)
• Latgalian: vādars m
• Latin: abdomen, venter, pantex
• Latvian: vēders (lv) m
• Lezgi: руфун (rufun)
• Ligurian: pansa f
• Lithuanian: pilvas m
• Lombard: venter (lmo)
• Low German: Buuk (nds) m
• Macedonian: мев m (mev), стомак (mk) m (stomak)
• Malay: perut (ms)
• Maltese: żaqq (mt) m
• Manchu: ᡥᡝᡶᡝᠯᡳ (hefeli)
• Maori: puku
• Maranao: tiyan
• Marwari: पैदौ m (paidau)
• Mauritian Creole: vant
• Moksha: пеке (peke)
• Mon: ^{(please verify)} ဗုင်ဂၞဴ
• Mongolian: гэдэс (mn) (gedes)
• Nanai: хэмдэ (hemde)
• Navajo: atéél
• Neapolitan: panza f
• Norman: ventre m (Jersey, Guernsey), vãtr m (Sark)
• Northern Ohlone: hút̄u
• Northern Sami: čoavji
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mage (no) m

• Occitan: ventre (oc)
• Odia: ପେଟ (or) (peṭa), ଉଦର (udara)
• Ojibwe: (my belly) nimisad
• Old Church Slavonic: чрѣво n (črěvo), брюхо n (brjuxo)
• Old Czech: břuch m
• Old English: wamb f
• Old French: ventre m
• Old Javanese: wĕtĕng
• Oromo: garaa
• Ottoman Turkish: قارن (karn, karın), شكم (şikem), بطن (batın)
• Pashto: نس (ps) m (nas), خېټه (ps) f (xéṭa)
• Pennsylvania German: Bauch m
• Persian: شکم (fa) (šekam)
• Phoenician: 𐤁𐤈𐤍 (bṭn /⁠baṭn⁠/)
• Plautdietsch: Buck (nds) m
• Polish: brzuch (pl) m
• Portuguese: barriga (pt) f, pança (pt) f, ventre (pt) m
• Quechua: wiksa

  Canka Quechua: wiksa

  Waiwaş Quechua: paca

  Wanka Quechua: pata

• Romanian: burtă (ro), abdomen (ro), pântece (ro), (pop) vintre (ro)
• Romansch: venter, vainter
• Russian: живо́т (ru) m (živót), брю́хо (ru) n (brjúxo) (disparaging), пу́зо (ru) n (púzo) (disparaging)
• Sanskrit: उदर (sa) m (udara)
• Sardinian: bentre, bentri, brente, brenti
• Scottish Gaelic: balg m, brù f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тр̀бух m

  Roman: tr̀buh (sh) m

• Seychellois Creole: vant
• Sicilian: panza (scn) f
• Slovak: brucho (sk) n
• Slovene: trebuh (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: brjuch m

  Upper Sorbian: brjuch m

• Spanish: barriga (es), panza (es), vientre (es), guata (es) f, busa f (Argentina), busarda f (River Plate), buseca f (Argentina)
• Sranan Tongo: bere
• Sudovian: vederas m
• Sundanese: beuteung (su), patuangan (su)
• Swedish: buk (sv) c, mage (sv) c
• Tabasaran: фун (fun)
• Tagalog: tiyan (tl), puson
• Tajik: шикам (tg) (šikam)
• Tamil: தொப்பை (ta) (toppai), தொந்தி (ta) (tonti)
• Tarifit: aɛeddis m, aɛebbuḍ m
• Tausug: tian
• Telugu: పొట్ట (te) (poṭṭa), కడుపు (te) (kaḍupu)
• Ternate: oru
• Tetum: kabun
• Thai: ท้อง (th) (tɔ́ɔng), พุง (th) (pung)
• Tibetan: ཕོ་བ (pho ba)
• Tigrinya: ከብዲ (käbdi)
• Tocharian B: kātso
• Tok Pisin: bel (tpi)
• Tooro: enda
• Turkish: göbek (tr), karın (tr)
• Turkmen: garyn
• Ugaritic: 𐎋𐎗𐎒 (krs)
• Ukrainian: живі́т (uk) m (žyvít), бру́хо n (brúxo) (disparaging)
• Umbundu: imo
• Urdu: پیٹ m (peṭ)
• Uyghur: قورساق (qorsaq)
• Uzbek: qorin (uz)
• Venetan: pansa f, pança f
• Vietnamese: bụng (vi)
• Volapük: bälid (vo)
• Walloon: vinte (wa) m
• Winnebago: nįįxa
• Wolof: biir
• Yakut: ис (is)
• Yiddish: בויך m (boykh)
• Yoruba: inú, ikùn
• Yurok: (my abdomen) 'ne-yah
• Zazaki: mesk f
• Zealandic: buuk m, poke f (in animals or vulgar)
• Zhuang: aendungx, dungx
• Zulu: isisu (zu) class 7/8

stomach — see stomach

womb — see also womb

• Finnish: vatsa (fi)

lower fuselage of airplane

• Finnish: vatsa (fi), ruuma (fi)

the part of anything resembling a belly

• Finnish: vatsa (fi) (of bottle etc.), pullistuma (fi) (of muscle), koppa (fi) (of violin), pussi (fi) (of sail), ruuma (fi) (of ship)
• Galician: boxo m, boxe (gl) m
• Maori: kete (refers to a fishing net), pukehina (of a fishing net), nake (of a net), ngake (of a net)

See also

• abdomen
• bouk
• have eyes bigger than one's belly
• midriff
• stomach
• tummy

Verb

belly (third-person singular simple present bellies, present participle bellying, simple past and past participle bellied)

1. To position one’s belly; to move on one’s belly.
   • 1903 July, Jack London, “The Sounding of the Call”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 220:

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

2. (intransitive) To swell and become protuberant; to bulge or billow.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Homer’s Ilias”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, book I, page 213:

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

   • 1890, Rudyard Kipling, The Rhyme of the Three Captains‎^[1]:

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

   • 1914, Theodore Roosevelt, chapter 6, in Through the Brazilian Wilderness‎^[2]:

     There were trees whose trunks bellied into huge swellings.

   • 1917 rev. 1925 Ezra Pound, "Canto I"

     winds from sternward

     Bore us onward with bellying canvas ...

   • 1930, Otis Adelbert Kline, The Prince of Peril, serialized in Argosy, Chapter 1,^[3]

     The building stood on a circular foundation, and its walls, instead of mounting skyward in a straight line, bellied outward and then curved in again at the top.

3. (transitive) To cause to swell out; to fill.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

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

   • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter I, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:

     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.

Derived terms

• bellying
• belly out
• belly up