stomach

Less common meanings

5. 5
   nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

   The desire for food; appetite or hunger.

   You come not home because you have no stomach. / You have no stomach, having broke your fast.

   c. 1594, William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”

   HOST. How say you sir, doo you please to sit downe? EUMENIDES. Hostes I thanke you, I haue no great stomack.

   c. 1590, G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale.

   Note

   To have no stomach once meant simply not being hungry. In Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors a servant complains to the man he takes for his master, "you have no stomach, having broke your fast", and Peele's guest declines a seat with "I have no great stomach." The literal phrase has gone out of use, but its shape lives on in the figurative appetite, where what you lack the stomach for is a fight rather than a meal. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • 'Have no stomach' historically meant to lack an appetite for food. folger.edu
   • In Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, Dromio of Ephesus speaks the quoted words to Antipholus of Syracuse, whom he mistakes for his master, Antipholus of Ephesus (Act 1, scene 2). shakespeare.mit.edu
   • The guest is Eumenides in George Peele's The Old Wives Tale; he declines the hostess's invitation to sit down with the quoted words. gutenberg.org
6. 6
   make sickverbobsoletetransitive

   To turn someone's stomach; to sicken or repel.

   Note

   The grammar runs the other way from the modern verb. Here the disgusting thing is the subject and the person is the object: the smell stomached him, where today we would say he could not stomach the smell. The sense is obsolete, and turn someone's stomach has taken over its work, so it is best recognized in older texts rather than used. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • In the historical causative sense, the disgusting thing is the subject and the affected person is the object; the example illustrates that construction. fulltextarchive.com
   • The historical verb means to sicken or repel someone, equivalent to turning their stomach. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   nounobsoleteuncountable

   Pride or haughtiness; a proud and defiant spirit.

   He was a man / Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking / Himself with princes;

   c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”

   Note

   Here the word names a temper that will not bend. In Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII, Queen Katherine describes Wolsey as a man "of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking himself with princes", and Locke in 1693 sets stomach beside pride and obstinacy as faults of will that must be bent. Meeting it in such company, read arrogance, not hunger. Outside historical writing or deliberate pastiche it is no longer used. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • The historical noun can mean pride or haughtiness. en.wiktionary.org
   • Henry VIII was written jointly by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. en.wikipedia.org
   • Queen Katherine speaks the quoted words about Wolsey in Henry VIII, Act IV, scene II. gutenberg.org
   • The relevant Locke work, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, was first published in 1693. en.wikisource.org
   • Locke groups stomach with pride and obstinacy and says the will must be bent. en.wikisource.org
8. 8
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To feel anger or resentment, especially to resent something and remember it with lasting anger.

   The Lion began at first to shew his Teeth, and to Stomach the Affront.

   1692, Roger L’Estrange, Fables

   O, my good lord, / Believe not all; or, if you must believe, / Stomach not all.

   c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”

   Note

   An old verb of grievance that a modern reader easily turns inside out. L'Estrange's lion begins "to stomach the affront", and Milton writes that Parliament will rule "though he stomach it". Both mean resenting, not tolerating. Read with the "put up with" meaning in mind, these lines say the opposite of what they mean. Without an object, the same old verb could simply mean to be angry. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • L'Estrange describes a lion beginning to resent an affront; the quoted wording is accurate with modernized spelling. gutenberg.org
   • Milton writes that Parliament exercises authority over the king, using the exact words "though he stomach it". tianmu.org
   • Both quotations exemplify the obsolete sense of resenting something; interpreting them as tolerating it reverses the intended sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • The obsolete verb also had an intransitive sense meaning to be angry. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   nounobsolete

   The portion of a garment designed to cover the wearer's midsection.