I. bel ‧ ly 1 /ˈbeli/ BrE AmE noun ( plural bellies ) [countable]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: belg 'bag, skin' ]
1 .
a) your stomach:
a full belly
b) British English the front part of your body between your chest and your legs SYN abdomen :
She was lying on her belly.
2 . the middle part of an animal’s body, near its stomach
3 . literary a curved or rounded part of an object:
the belly of a plane
4 . black-bellied/fat-bellied/big-bellied etc having a black, fat, big etc stomach
5 . go belly up informal if a business or company goes belly up, it stops operating because it cannot pay its debts
⇨ ↑ beer belly , ↑ potbelly
II. belly 2 BrE AmE ( also belly out ) verb ( past tense and past participle bellied , present participle bellying , third person singular bellies ) [intransitive] literary
to fill with air and become rounder in shape