Meaning

(archaic, now only humorous or dialectal) Food, provender..

Example Sentences

And tho' knights errant, as some think, / Of old did neither eat nor drink, / Because when thorough deserts vast, / And regions desolate, they past, / Where belly-timber above ground, / Or under, was not to be found …

The strength of every other member / Is founded on your belly-timber; / The qualms or raptures of your blood, / Rise in proportion to your food; …

I hope, a'gad, they have not forgotten my trunk-mails of apparel amid the ample provision they have made for their own belly-timber—Mercy, a'gad, I were finely holped up if the vesture has miscarried among the thievish Borderers!

The term belly-timber, meaning food, [...] actually originated in the early seventeenth century as a commonplace, everyday term, although within fifty years it came to be seen as a ludicrous and affected compound; accordingly, after the mid seventeenth century, belly-timber was used only ironically, meaning that you could say it only while wiggling in the air two fingers of each hand. In Old English, the word timber originally meant house, having developed from an Indo-European source that meant to build. By the tenth century timber had come to mean building material, which was the sense from which belly-timber developed, food being the "building-material" of the human body.

Word Forms

• belly-timbers
• bellytimber
• belly-tember
• belly-timmer

Synonyms for belly-timber

Related Words

When Should You Use Belly-timber?

Use belly-timber when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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