Talking about belly...

In English, we have a casual way to say stomach which is the word belly (小腹, こばら). Today we are going to look at many different words and expressions that use the word belly.

a belly button (臍, へそ)




This is where a baby's umbilical cord used to be. There are two kinds of belly buttons:

1. -an innie where the belly button goes in and
2. -an outie where the belly button sticks out.

a pot belly or a beer belly (酒太り, さけぶとり)

This is when someone (usually men) has a big gut, their stomach really sticks out a lot. The fattest part of their body is a big belly which sticks out. Likes this picture from thefreedictionary.com

a belly dancer (ベリーダンサー )

A belly dancer is someone who does belly dancing, which is a kid of dancing from the Middle East where women dance by moving their belly(abdomen).

a belly laugh (腹笑い, ふくわらい)

This is a big laugh from your belly ^_^

a bellyflop

This is when someone jumps into the water and lands on their belly with a loud SMACKing sound.

a bellyache

This is children's English for a stomachache. It can also be used as a verb meaning to complain-it's usually used in this way to ask someone to stop complaining.

Quit your bellyaching~! It's driving me crazy!!!

to go belly up

This is an idiom which means to go bankrupt, to fail, to die. It comes from the fact that when goldfish die they then float to the surface of the aquarium with their belly up.

I heard a rumor Mr. Donuts might go belly up.

Ok that's all for now, have a good weekend,

Phil