belted

1. 1
   adjective

   Designed or supplied with a belt fitted to it.

   The tailored, belted overcoat flattered her figure.

   Many trench coats come belted rather than buttoned at the waist.

   Oppositeunbelted

   Note

   The adjective is belt plus -ed, the pattern that turns a noun into "having one," as in hooded or collared. It describes the garment, not the person. Examples include the belted mac in Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty (2004) and the belted trousers General Hoyt S. Vandenberg called unsightly in Time in 1952. A coat either is belted or is not, so the word takes no "more" or "most."

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of belt.

   The drummer belted the snare on every beat.

   The anthem was belted across the packed stadium.

   Note

   A regular past form: one spelling serves both the simple past (she belted the chorus) and the participle after have or be (the anthem was belted). The verb ranges from fastening a belt on to striking, singing loudly and gulping a drink, so the object usually decides which is meant. Placed before a noun, the participle settles into the garment adjective or the "wearing a belt" sense.

3. 3
   adjective

   Wearing a belt fastened around the waist.

   The belted officers assembled for morning inspection.

   He strode in, belted and dressed for the cold ride.

   Oppositeunbelted

   Note

   Here the belt is on the wearer rather than built into the clothes. Oliver Wendell Holmes's "belted grenadiers" (1875) are soldiers on the march, and the word works as an epithet: one visual detail stands for the whole equipped figure. Used this way before a noun it has a martial, literary ring. Compare the garment sense, where the coat or trousers are what is belted.

4. 4
   adjective

   Marked by a white band running around the body.

   The breeder showed off his belted cattle at the county fair.

   A belted heifer wandered to the edge of the dark pasture.

   Similarbanded

   Note

   This is a breeder's and naturalist's word, and it is often part of a name: the Belted Galloway, Belted Dutch cattle, the belted kingfisher. In a breed name it is capitalized. In an ordinary description (a belted heifer) it is not. The image is the band running right around the body like a belt, so the word cannot be compared by degree.

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