Dictionary

swagbelly en · NOUN

Etymology

From swag (“to droop; to sag”) + belly.

Meanings

1. A prominent, overhanging belly.
   • Sancho Zancas […] in the picture, was represented as a person of a short stature, swag belly, and long spindle shanks […]. 1755, Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Tobias Smollett, Don Quixote, Volume 1, II.1:
   • He swept his gaze over the short, squat throat, the hairy swagbelly, and the mighty breast, swelling in giant arches like twin shields. 1935, Robert Ervin Howard, “The Haunter of the Pits”, in The Hour of the Dragon:
2. Hence, a person with such a belly.
   • However, so many swagbellies and puff-bags will hardly go to St Hiacco, as there did in the year 524 1694, Peter, transl. Motteux, chapter V, in Gargantua and Pantagruel, translation of La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel by Rabelais, François, published c. 1564:
3. A distended abdomen, especially caused by a tumour or enlarged organ; a physconia.

Forms

Deriveds

swaggy · swagbellied

Synonyms

paunch (prominent belly) · fat person