What does "belly" mean?

1. (stomach area) the stomach or the front part of the body below the chest. 2. (underside of a vehicle) the bottom part of a large object, like an airplane or a ship. 3. (to swell or bulge) to swell out or fill with air, like a sail in the wind.

belly — meaning, definition & examples

Word

01stomach area

A2 · Elementary Countable noun

n. the stomach or the front part of the body below the chest.

n. the abdomen or stomach region of a human or animal.

“The puppy rolled over to let someone scratch its belly.”

“After the heavy holiday meal, he sat back in his armchair and patted his belly with a look of total satisfaction.”

Synonyms

stomach abdomen tummy

Antonyms

back

02underside of a vehicle

B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun

n. the bottom part of a large object, like an airplane or a ship.

n. the lower fuselage of an aircraft or the underside of a large vessel.

“The luggage is stored in the belly of the plane.”

“The engineers inspected the belly of the aircraft for any signs of structural damage after the emergency landing on the grass strip.”

Synonyms

underside bottom

Antonyms

top roof

03to swell or bulge

C1 · Advanced Literary

v. to swell out or fill with air, like a sail in the wind.

v. to swell out or become protuberant; often used of sails or curtains filling with air.

“The sails began to belly out as the wind picked up.”

“The heavy velvet curtains bellied inward as a sudden gust of cold night air forced its way through the open window.”

Synonyms

bulgebillowswell

Antonyms

deflate flatten

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *balgiz Proto-West Germanic *balgi Old English bielġ Middle English bely English belly Inherited from Middle English bely, beli, bali, below, belew, balyw, from Old English bielġ (“bag, pouch, bulge”), from Proto-West Germanic balgi, balgu, from Proto-Germanic balgiz, balguz (“skin, hide, bellows, bag”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell, blow up”). Cognate with Dutch balg, German Balg, Danish bælg, Old Irish bolg, Welsh bol. Doublet of bellows, blague, bulge, and budge. See also bellows. For the belly — bellows connection compare typologically Macedonian мев (mev, “abdomen, belly; bellows”). Also compare Ancient Greek φῦσα (phûsa, “bellows; bladder; ...”), Latin venter — vēsīca, Russian пу́зо (púzo) — пузы́рь (puzýrʹ), пузырёк (puzyrjók).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NOUN

belly(A2)

underbelly(C1)

abdomen stomach tummy