Phrase guide

belly out

verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To bulge or billow outward.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

Examples

  • 1944, Caleb Milne, “I Dream of the Day...” Letters from Caleb Milne, Africa, 1942-1943, Woodstock, NY: Van Rees Press, Chapter 4, p. 21, Now and then the street bellies out into an ancient lime-stone square filled with fiacres and peddlers, pausing in the loud sunshine.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To cause to bulge or billow outward.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • 1834, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Happiness” (written in 1791), lines 30-31, The scene is changed and Fortune’s gale Shall belly out each prosperous sail.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

swell out or bulge out

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: belly

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: swell, swell up, intumesce, tumefy, tumesce

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.