belly
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishHuman, Animals, Daily lifebellybel‧ly1 /ˈbeli/ ●●○ noun (plural bellies) [countable]
1 PERSON a) HBHyour stomach
a full belly b) British EnglishHBH the front part of your body between your chest and your legs SYN abdomen
She was lying on her belly.2 ANIMALHBAthe middle part of an animal’s body, near its stomach3 OBJECTDT literary a curved or rounded part of an object
the belly of a plane4 → black-bellied/fat-bellied/big-bellied etc 5 → go belly up → beer belly, potbellyExamples from the Corpusbelly• Everybody should go home with full bellies tonight.• She lay on her belly in the long grass.• Protruding from his belly was an ugly purple scar.• I had scored, but no football in my belly at the end, just six points.• I lay on my stomach, on his bed, a white gym-towel under my belly.• He kicked Charlie in the belly as soon as they got out of the car.• the belly of an airplane• Your belly is very furry and quite sweet.bellybelly2 (also belly out) verb (bellied, bellying, bellies) [intransitive] literary
to fill with air and become rounder in shapeOrigin belly1 Old English belg “bag, skin”
