tenterbelly

English

Etymology

tenter ("to stretch") + belly.

Noun

tenterbelly (plural tenterbellies)

1. (obsolete) A glutton.
   • 1628, Robert Burton, The Anatomy Of Melancholy:

     Not with ſweet wine, mutton and potage, as many of thoſe Tenterbellies doe, howſoever they put on Lenten faces, and whatſoever they pretend, but from all manner of meat.

   • 1630, John Taylor, The Great Eater of Kent:

     Bell, the famous Idoll of the Babylonians, was a meere imposture, a Iuggling toye, and a cheating bable, in comparison of this Nicholaitan, Kentish Tenterbelly, the high and mighty Duke All-paunch, was but a fiction to him.

   • 1638, Richard Younge, The Drunkard's Character:

     That amongst the drink-alians in tenterbelly, he that can drinke a certaine vessell of about a gallon thrice off, and goe away without indenting, for this his good service is presently carried through the City in triumph, to that goodly Temple dedicated to god All-paunch, and there knighted.