Forms: 3–4 bali, 4 baly(e, 4–5 bale, 4–6 bely, (5 bylly), 6 bally, bealy(e, bellye, 6–7 bellie, 5– belly. [ME. bali, bely:—OE. bæliʓ, bęliʓ, earlier bælʓ, bęlʓ ‘bag, skin, envelope, hull (of beans and peas),’ identical with ON. belgr ‘skin, bag,’ OHG. balg, MDu. balch, Goth. balgs ‘bag, sack’:—OTeut. *balgi-z ‘bag,’ lit. ‘inflated or swollen thing,’ f. belgan, pa. t. balg, ‘to be inflated, swell up.’ The same word of which the plural appears as BELLOWS. The sense ‘belly’ did not exist in OE., and has not been developed in the cognate langs. Evidence is wanting to show whether it came directly from the sense of a material ‘bag,’ or whether the meaning ‘body’ (as the shell or husk of the soul) intervened: cf. senses 2 and 3. The history of the differentiation of belly and bellows is complicated. The various dialectal forms of the OE. word were WSax. bięlʓ, later bylʓ, byliʓ, Kentish and ESax. bęlʓ, bęliʓ, Anglian bælʓ, bæliʓ; these gave the early ME. buli (ü), beli, bali, respectively. Of these beli, bely occurs in sense both of ‘bellows’ and ‘belly’; bali only as = ‘belly’; buli(es) only as = ‘bellows.’ Hence it may be inferred that the sense ‘body, belly’ arose first in a dialect where the form was bali, baly, and that this form passed with this sense into other dialects, which could thus discriminate bali ‘belly,’ from beli, buli, ‘bellows.’ Meanwhile the north. dial. obtained the distinction in another way, viz. by the establishment of belw in sense of ‘bellows’: thus the Promp. Parv. has Bely venter, Below follis. Finally the pl. belwes, belowes was generally adopted in that sense, and beli, bely became the literary form for the part of the body. Bally still occurs dialectally, e.g., in Lancashire and Shropshire.]
I. Original sense, in OE.
† 1. A bag, skin-bag, purse, pod, husk. Freq. in comb. as béan-bælʓ ‘bean-pod,’ blást-bælʓ BELLOWS q.v., met-bæl(i)ʓ ‘meat-bag, scrip,’ wínbel(i)ʓ ‘wine-skin, leather bottle.’ Only in OE.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xv. 16. And wilnade ʓefylle womb his of bean-bælʓum. ibid., xxii. 35. Ic sende iuih buta seame and met-bæliʓ.
c. 975. Rushw. G., ibid. Butu seome and metbælʓe. Ibid., Matt. ix. 17. Ne menn ʓeotaþ win niowe in win belʓas alde, elles to bersteþ þa belʓas … and þa belʓas to lore weorðaþ.
971. Blickl. Hom., 31. Þa nam he fif stanas on his herdebelig.
c. 1050. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 360. Bulga, bælʓe oððe bylʓe.
II. Of the body of man and animals.
† 2. The body (? as the shell or integument of the soul. Cf. Ger. madensack ‘worm-sack,’ the body). Obs.
c. 1275. Sinners Beware, 199, in O. E. Misc., 78. Hwenne bali me byndeþ And bryngeþ hine on eorþe.
c. 1275. Death, 83, in O. E. Misc., 172. Þenne saið þe sawle … Awai þu wrecche fole bali (l. 83 baly), Nu þu list on bere. Ibid., 137. Li awariede bali [later vers. bodi], that neauer thu ne arise.
3. That part of the human body that lies between the breast and the thighs, and contains the bowels; the abdomen. (The ordinary mod. sense.)
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 679. Þe brest with þe bely.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Pseudo-Freris, Wks. (1880), 315. To breede hem grete balyes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 30. Bely, venter, alvus, uterus.
c. 1475[?]. Hunt. Hare, 187. Won hit hym on the bale with a mall.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 154. The Iustice in faire round belly, with good Capon lin’d.
1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, II. 643. A secret retained four and twenty hours would have burst his belly.
1834. Marryat, P. Simple, xxi. We must creep to the ramparts on our bellies.
1843. Watson’s Pract. Physic, II. 342. Organs … in the cavity of the belly.
fig. 1677. Gilpin, Dæmonol. (1867), 254. [To] go over the belly of their scruple to the performance of their action.
b. The part of a garment covering the belly.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., III. i. Such a sleeve, such a shirt, belly and all.
1601. Cornwallyes, Ess., II. xxviii. Our Taylors gave us a little belly to our doublets.
4. The under part of the body of animals.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 451. Take pykes, and undo hom on the bale, and wash hom clene.
1535. Coverdale, Gen. iii. 14. Vpon thy bely [Wyclif, breest] shalt thou go & earth shalt thou eate.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 514. A monstrous Serpent on his Belly prone.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4792/4. Two Geldings, the one black … carrying a small Belly.
1862. Johns, Brit. Birds (1879), 419. The Common Curlew … belly white, with longitudinal dusky spots.
b. As a joint of meat.
1883. Enquire Within (ed. 67), § 1044. A belly of pork is excellent in this way.
5. That part of the body which receives food; the stomach with its adjuncts.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. Prol. 41. Heor Bagges and heore Balies weren [bratful] I-crommet.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Epist. Dom., xii. Sel. Wks. II. 257. Þer owene bely þat þei feden as þer God.
1394. P. Pl. Crede, 1521. With the bandes of bakun His baly for to fillen.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), III. 1156. Ye have so fellyd yower bylly with growell.
1526. Tindale, Luke xv. 16. He wold fayne have filled his bely [Wyclif, wombe] with the coddes that the swyne ate.
1554–9. Songs & Ball. Q. Mary, V. (1860), 13. Glade when the may fyll up thear ballys with bennys.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 45. Whan the bealy is full, the bones wold be at rest.
1629. Ford, Lover’s Melanch., II. ii. Get some warm porridge in your belly.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 16. He that sows … upon marble, will have many a hungry belly before harvest.
1857. Bohn’s Handbk. Prov., 70. The belly is not filled with fair words.
b. Hence, Put for the body in its capacity for food: opposed to back, as the recipient of clothing. Also, the appetite for food.
1555. Fardle Facions, I. vi. 102. They sitte them downe together, and eate by the bealy.
1653. Walton, Angler, 144. It is a hard thing to perswade the belly, because it hath no ears.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 312. The Labourers or Manufacturers that … wrought for the Backs and Bellies of other People.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, 62. The best way … is to pinch their bellies.
1763. Johnson, in Boswell (1831), I. 479. He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind any thing else.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, i. 30. The way to many an honest heart lies through the belly.
c. The body in its capacity for indulgence of appetite; gluttony.
1526. Tindale, Phil. iii. 19. Whose God is their bely [Wyclif, the wombe].
c. 1538. Starkey, England, II. ii. 171. Drunkerys, gyuen to the bely and plesure therof.
1561. Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 37 b. Beastly bondslaues of the bealy.
1837. A. Combe, Princ. Physiol., iv. (ed. 6), 120. Let it not be supposed that I wish to make a god of the belly.
† d. A glutton. Obs.
1526. Tindale, Tit. i. 12. Evyll beastes, and slowe belies [Wyclif, of slowe wombe].
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 1114. Tributes … by wicked Princes bestowed vpon flatterers and bellies.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 133. They called the Eaters of it Savages and Bellies.
6. The bowels.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1330. Þen brek þay þe bale, þe balez out token.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, Ff ij. He felt a payne in his bealye.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 92. Good against all pains in the small guts, for it dryeth and stayeth the belly.
1671. J. Webster, Metallogr., xii. 186. It doth not loose the belly, or purge.
7. The womb, the uterus.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 30/1. Bely, uterus.
1549–50. Plumpton Corr., 254. As yet my wife hath not laid her belly.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. v. 41. I shall answer that better than you can the getting vp of the Negroes belly; the Moore is with childe by you.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. xlvii. 222. My belly did not blab, so I was still a Mayde.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 472. While they smell and taste of their dams belly.
1728. Gay, Begg. Op., I. (1772), 75. Why, she may plead her belly at worst.
1853. ‘Stonehenge,’ Greyhound, 178. ‘Flirt’ ran second for the same cup with ‘War Eagle’ in her belly.
8. The internal cavity of the body; the ‘inside.’
1491. Caxton, Four Sons (1885), 173. He braste the herte in hys bely.
1535. Coverdale, Jonah ii. 1. So was Ionas in the bely [Wyclif, wombe] of the fysh, thre dayes and thre nightes.
1625. trans. Gonsalvio’s Sp. Inquis., 43. Neither hath he any mans heart in his belly, that can without teares reade or heare these things.
1629. R. Bernard, Terence’s Andr., I. i. 12/1. It made my heart cold in my belly.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 472. Some shallow-pated puritan … will … cry me up to have a Pope in my belly.
9. The interior, the inside; esp. of things having a hollow cavity within, but also of other things material and immaterial.
1535. Coverdale, Jonah ii. 2. Out of the bely [Wyclif, wombe] off hell I cried.
1658. Ussher, Ann., v. 78. Out of Scythia, went over the belly of all Asia, till he came into Egypt.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. III. 164. Speak i’ th’ Nun at London’s Belly?
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. xiv. (1715), 123. Ships of Burden … having large and capacious Bellies.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), II. xlvi. 801. They treat of obligationes … as it were in the belly of the opposite class, or that of dominia.
1884. Froude, Carlyle, II. xix. 65. A … candle lighted in the belly of a dark dead past.
† 10. An internal cavity. Obs.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 148. There are hollowe places [of the braine], called ‘little bellies.’ Ibid., 220. Wee divided … the internall parts of the frame … of man into three bellies.
11. ‘The part of anything that swells out into a larger capacity’ (Johnson), the bulging part e.g., of a pot or bottle; a suddenly widened part of a vein of ore; the central portion of a muscle, etc.
1591. Spenser, Bellay’s Vis., IX. Leaning on the belly of a pot.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 759. [This muscle] was called Digastricus because it hath two Venters or Bellies.
1625. Bacon, Delays, Ess. (Arb.), 525. Or at least turneth the Handle of the Bottle, first to be receiued, and after the Belly, which is hard to claspe.
1674. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. vii. § 12. Against the Belly of the Bean.
1710. London & Wise, Compl. Gard., IV. (1719), 62. A handsome Pear … its Belly round.
1747. Hooson, Miners’ Dict., s.v., Such Bellys prove oftentimes very well filled with Ore.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 416. Sulphurated Iron occurs in strata in bellies and in veins.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., I. 711/1. The belly of the shell comprises the greatest part of the exterior surface.
1845. Todd & Bowman, Phys. Anat., I. 176. Muscles which have a bulging centre or belly.
12. A concave or hollow surface; a concavity formed in a surface, e.g., of a sail.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 443. Citherns or Lutes, upon whose bellies the Musitians played their Musick.
1626. Bacon, Nat. Hist., § 146 (J.). It [an Irish harp] hath the concave or belly not along the strings, but at the end of the strings.
1701. Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1277. They wholly laid aside the Tortoise shell, and the sonorous part or Belly of the Lyre, was made of … different Figures.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, v. 12. To fall from aloft and be caught in the belly of a sail.
13. The front, inner or lower surface of anything, as opposed to the back; e.g., the front bulging surface of a violin, the inside of curved timber, the angle formed by the meeting of the two lower sides of a burin or graver, the convex under edge of the tumbler of a lock, etc.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Arts, II. 44. Great pains is required to whet the graver nicely, particularly the belly of it.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 346/1. The back [of the violin] is worked out much in the same proportion as the belly.
c. 1850. Rudim. Nav. (Weale), 96. Belly, the inside or hollow part of compass or curved timber, the outside of which is called the Back.
1867. Tyndall, Sound, iii. 90. The two feet of the bridge rest upon the most yielding portion of the belly of the violin.
1884. F. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 143. The teeth of the wheel in passing just clear the belly of the pallets.
14. In various technical uses derived from the preceding: e.g., in Coach-building, the wooden casing of the axle-tree; in Leather trade, the belly hide of an ox or other beast (cf. BEND, BACK); in Saddlery, a piece of leather fastened to the back of the cantle, and sometimes forming a point of attachment for valise-straps.
1880. Daily News, 10 Nov., 3/8. Leather … There is a short supply … of … light English … bellies.
III. Comb. and Attrib.
15. attrib. (often = adj.) Pertaining to the belly: a. lit. Ventral, abdominal, as in -belly-fin, -part, -place, -worm.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., IV. xix. 473. The lower belly-part of the former fish.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 156. His tender belly-parts.
1748. trans. Vegetius’ Distemp. Horses, 93. Proper for destroying Maw- or Belly-worms.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), 294. The ventral, or belly fins,… are either wholly wanting, as in the eel, [etc.].
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., iii. 17. ‘Us must crawl on our belly-places.’
† b. Pertaining to the supply of food, to bodily nourishment or appetite, as in belly-care, -joy, -matter. Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. VII. 118. I shall cessen of my sowyng … Ne about my bely ioye so bisi be na-more.
c. 1530. More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 101. Preferring their belly joy before all the ioyes of heauen.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. 1 Cor. 2. The Lordes souper … was no bealy matter.
a. 1564. Becon, Fortr. Faithful, Wks. (1844), 602. This belly-care … is a great temptation to man … when he seeth all things so dear.
† c. Theol. Pertaining to the service of the flesh; fleshly, carnal; as in belly-doctrine, -ease, -wisdom.
1528. Tindale, Obed. Chr. Man, To Rdr. Wks. I. 138. Our fleshly wit, our worldly understanding, and belly-wisdom.
1528. Roy, Satire (1845). A bely beast engendred amonge the … papysticall secte.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., Wks. (1851), 146. Deluded through belly-doctrines into a devout slavery.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 283. Apt to construe every divine saying in a belly-sense.
16. a. objective with vbl. sb. or pr. pple., as belly-worshipper, -worshipping. b. locative and adverbial, as belly-beaten, -devout, -fed, -gulled, -laden, -naked, -pinched, -proud, -sprung; also belly-like adj.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 219. Children … backe and *belly-beaten.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 140. The *belly-devout Friers.
1574. B. Googe, Lett., in N. & Q., III. III. 181. The *bellyfedd mynysters that came over, att … a miserabell hard dyett.
1640. Brome, Sparagus Gard., V. xiii. 221. I have been … backe-guld and *belly-guld.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Badger, The other lays Earth on his Belly, and so … draws the *Belly-laden Badger out of the Hole.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 486/2. The posterior *belly-like part of the cell.
1525. Basyn, 168, in Hazl., E. P. P., III. 51. Upstert the wench … And ran to hir maistrys all *baly naked.
1611. Cotgr., Tout fin mere nu, all discouered … starke *bellie naked.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. i. 13. The lion and the *belly-pinched wolf.
1675. Three Inhumane Murthers, 2. But he growing *Belly-proud, and Prodigal, being like Æsop’s Snake, waxt Warm, stung to death those which had save his life.
1607. Lingua, IV. i. in Hazl., Dodsl., IX. 412. *Belly-sprung invention.
17. Special combinations: belly bound a., constipated, costive; belly-brace, a cross-brace passing beneath the steam-boiler of a locomotive; † belly-cheat (slang), something for the belly, food; also, an apron; belly-critic, a connoisseur of good living; † belly-cup, ? a cup with a swelling body; † belly-doublet, a doublet covering the belly; belly-fretting, ‘a great Pain in the Belly of a Horse; also the Wounding, or Galling of that Part with Fore-girths’ (Phillips, 1706); † belly-friend, a parasite; belly-grinding, pain in the bowels, colic; belly-gut, a slothful glutton; belly-guy (Naut.), ‘a tackle applied half-way up sheers, or long spars that require support in the middle’ (Adm. Smyth); belly-helve (see quot.); belly-metal, food, BELLY-TIMBER; † belly-mountained a., having a large prominent belly; † belly-paunch, (fig.) a great eater, a glutton; belly-pinched a., pinched with hunger; belly-roll, a roller with a central bulge, adapted to roll land between ridges or in hollows; belly-sacrifice, ? a sacrifice to the belly; belly-shot a., a disease of cattle (see quot.); † belly-slave, one devoted to eating and drinking, a glutton; belly-stay (Naut.), a stay ‘used half-mast down when a mast requires support’ (Adm. Smyth); † belly-swain, ? a glutton; † belly-sweep v., to sweep (the ground) with the belly; belly-thrawe (Sc.), pain in the belly, colic; belly-vengeance (dial.), sour ale, cider, wine, etc. Also BELLY-ACHE, BELLY-GOD, BELLY-TIMBER, etc., q.v.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 302. Of Costiveness, or *Belly-bound, when a Horse is bound in the belly, and cannot dung.
1609. Dekker, Lanth. & Candle-Lt., Wks. 1885, III. 196. A Smelling cheate, signifies a Nose:… A *Belly chete, an Apron.
1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, II. i. Each man shall eat his own stol’n eggs,… ay, and possess What he can purchase, back or *belly-cheats, To his own prop.
a. 1711. Ken, Urania, Wks. 1721, IV. 468. The *Belly-Criticks study how to eat.
1673. Lond. Gaz., No. 764/4. Several Canns, Bouls, *Belly-Cups, Spoons.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., III. i. 19. Your armes crost on your thin *bellie doublet.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 529. [For] *Belly grinding, bake a cake of Rye flower … and apply it as hot as may be suffered.
1540. Morysine, trans. Vives’ Introd. Wysd., D viij. Suche as be skoffers, smell feastes … *bely guts.
1733. Bailey, Erasm. Colloq. (1877), 346 (D.). Thou wouldst not have a belly-gut for thy servant, but rather one brisk and agile.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Belly-helve, a forge-hammer, lifted by a cam … midway between the fulcrum and the head.
1590. Plain Perc., A iij. Old wringers … that fell out at their *belly mettall.
1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol., 65. A man of pufpast, like that fat *bellie-mountaind Bishop.
1553–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 28/2. Heliogabalus that monsterous *belli-paunch.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Ridge, It is harrow’d right up and down, and roll’d with a *Belly-Roll that passes between the Ridges.
1555. Fardle Facions, II. ix. 200. Acquaintaunce and kindesfolke, assembled together, make a *bealie sacrifice of hym [i.e., devour him].
1688. J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 986. Their Guts [i.e., of cattle] shrink up, and they become *Belly-shot.
1562. Homilies, II. Agst. Gluttony (1859), 300. These beastly *belly-slaves … continually day and night, give themselves wholly to bibbing and banqueting.
a. 1587. Campion, Hist. Irel., II. i. (1633), 67. Proud, *belly-swaines fed with extortion and bribery.
1638. G. Daniel, Eclog., v. 146. Some *belly-sweep the Earth, and some have wings To cut the purer Ayre.
1595. Duncan, Append. Etymol. (E. D. S.), Tormen, the *bellie-thrawe.
1826. Blackw. Mag., XIX. 631. A diet of outlandish soups and *belly-vengeance.
