Dictionary

soft underbelly en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) A weak spot; a soft spot.
   • Scientists have known for years that the Thwaites glacier is the soft underbelly of the Antarctic ice sheet, and first found that it was unstable decades ago. 2014 May 12, Suzanne Goldenberg, “Western Antarctic ice sheet collapse has already begun, scientists warn”, in The Guardian:
   • The current, predominantly right-wing perception is of the Balkans as a contagious disease, an infectious sore in the soft underbelly of Europe, best left to fester in isolation. 2014, Christian Promitzer, Siegfried Gruber, Harald Heppner, editors, Southeast European Studies in a Globalizing World, LIT Verlag Münster, page 119:
   • But supply convoys are the soft underbelly of a powerful, modern military force that the Taliban is incapable of matching in conventional combat. 2009 March 30, Mustafa Qadri, “Nato's soft underbelly”, in The Guardian:

Forms

Translations (4)

pl miękkie podbrzusze (weak spot) · fr ventre mou (weak spot) · ru мя́гкое подбрю́шье (weak spot) · cmn 軟肋 /软肋 (weak spot)