midriff

English

Alternative forms

• midrif (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English midref, mydrif, from Old English midrif, midhrif (“the midriff; diaphragm”), from Proto-West Germanic *middjahrif. Equivalent to mid- +‎ riff.

Pronunciation

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Noun

midriff (plural midriffs)

1. (anatomy) The middle section of the human torso, from below the chest to above the waist; the abdomen and its back part.
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XXI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     I stuck it out for about an hour and then, apprised by a hollow feeling in the midriff that the dinner hour was approaching, laid a course for home.

   • 2023 January 20, Dan Bilefsky, “American Expatriates in Paris Wish Emily Cooper Would Go Home”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     But by Season 3, she said her patience had fizzled like bad Champagne after Emily grossly mispronounced “bien sûr” (“of course!”), flashed her midriff at the office and mistook George Sand, the French romantic writer, as a man.

Synonyms

• midsection

Translations

mid section of the human torso

• Bulgarian: талия f (talija)
• Chinese:

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

• Dutch: middenrif (nl) n
• Finnish: keskivartalo (fi)
• French: ventre (fr) m
• German: Bauch (de) m; Taille (de) f
• Japanese: 上腹部 (jōfukubu, literally “upper belly portion”), 胴体の中部 (dōtai no chūbu, literally “middle portion of the torso”)
• Latin: praecordia n pl
• Macedonian: половина f (polovina)
• Polish: brzuch (pl) m
• Portuguese: ventre (pt) m
• Spanish: abdomen (es) m; vientre (es) m, cintura (es) f

See also

• diaphragm