Dictionary

barrel-bellied en · ADJ

Etymology

From barrel + bellied.

Meanings

1. Having a large prominent belly reminiscent of a barrel.
   • Yes, that Boris Johnson, the tousle-haired, barrel-bellied engineer of the UK's exit from the EU. 2016 July 14, “Boris Johnson: How Britain's new foreign secretary has insulted the world”, in bbc.co.uk:
   • Another pleasure earlier in summer is to watch the barrel-bellied gravid females warming their unborn embryos, which emerge directly as babies rather than as eggs (hence the species’ old name, viviparous lizard). 2020 September 15, Mark Cocker, “Country diary: appreciating the minutiae of a lizard’s life”, in The Guardian:
   • That showed what the Abbot was, besides being one of those bulging with importance barrel-bellied small men with an outsize in red doormat beards, which must have kept his face red-hot. 1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 40:
   • But how much more galling for a woman whose trademark throughout her long career has been her elegance, her age-defying looks and her meticulous grooming to find out that the Gloria “lookalike” who spearheaded the scam is revealed on CCTV footage to be a barrel-bellied old bat in drawstring trousers and gutties. 2016 August 20, Lindy McDowell, “Which was worse: the robbery or someone thinking that woman was dead ringer for you?”, in Belfast Telegraph, archived from the original on 25 Apr 2023:
   • Two other hunters—next to him in presence of mind and energy—threw their arms round the great barrel-bellied infant, and hoisted him into the boat, which nearly capsized with the weight and struggle. 1850 August 3, Charles Dickens, Household Words, volume 1, page 446:

Forms