# belly

Pronunciation: say "BEL-ee" /ˈbɛli/

## Noun

1. The front of the body between the chest and the hips, especially when it is fat.
   - Simple: The front of your body below your chest, especially when it is big.
   - _Years of beer and late-night pizza had given him a round belly._
   - _She lay on her belly in the grass, reading a paperback._
2. The stomach, the internal organ where food is held while it is being digested.
   - Simple: The stomach, the part inside your body where food goes after you eat it.
   - _A full belly made the whole crew sleepy after lunch._
   - _Thousands of families went to bed on empty bellies that winter._
3. The womb: the organ in a female mammal in which young are conceived and develop until birth.
   - Simple: The womb, the part inside a mother where a baby grows before it is born.
   - _She could feel the twins turning over in her belly._
   - _The calf was already large in the cow's belly by early spring._
4. The rounded or bulging part, underside, or deep interior of something, such as a ship's hull, a sail, or a mountain.
   - Simple: The round or bulging part, bottom, or inside of something, like a ship, a sail, or a glass.
   - _Cargo was packed tightly into the belly of the ship._
   - _The miners worked for weeks deep in the belly of the mountain._
7. The main curved part of the blade of a knife.
   - Simple: The big curved part of the blade on a knife.
   - _Chefs rock the belly of the blade back and forth to mince garlic._
   - _A skinning knife with a pronounced belly makes long, smooth cuts easier._
8. The hollow inner side of a curved or bent timber, opposite the outward-curving side called the back.
   - Simple: The inside, hollow side of a curved wooden beam.
   - _The builder turned the arched rafter so that its belly faced the room below._
   - _Check the belly of each bent timber for cracks before the frame is raised._

## Verb

6. To swell or bulge outward, or to make something swell outward, as wind does with a sail.
   - Simple: To puff out in a round shape, or make something do this, like wind in a sail.
   - _The tent walls belly and snap whenever a gust sweeps across the field._
   - _The old plaster had bellied outward where water seeped behind it._
5. To place one's belly somewhere, or to move along on one's belly by crawling.
   - Simple: To put your belly in a place, or to move along on your belly.
   - _The scouts bellied through the tall grass toward the enemy camp._
   - _Regulars belly up to the bar the moment the doors open._

## Origin

The Proto-Indo-European root *bʰelǵʰ-, meaning to swell or blow up, led to Proto-Germanic *balgiz, *balguz, a word for skin or hide, bellows, or a bag. From this came Old English bielġ ("bag, pouch, bulge"), inherited as Middle English bely. Dutch balg, German Balg and Old Irish bolg are related, and bellows, bulge and budge are doublets.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/belly (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).