1630. Randolph, Jealous Lovers. Asot: Come, blush not, bashfull
belly-piece—I will meet thee: I ever keep my word with a fair lady.
I will requite that jewell with a richer.
Belly Plea, subs. (old).—A plea of pregnancy, generally adduced by
female felons capitally convicted. This they took care to provide for,
previous to trial; every gaol had, as the Beggars’ Opera informs us,
one or more child-getters, who qualified the ladies for that expedient.
The plea still holds good, execution of female convicts in ‘an
interesting condition’ being deferred until after accouchement. In
practice, it really means a commutation of the death penalty for life
imprisonment. All chances, however, of becoming enceinte after arrest
are sedulously guarded against by the rules of modern prison life.
Belly-Plumper, subs. (American).—See Belly-bumper.
Belly-Timber, subs. (old).—Food; provisions of all kinds. [From belly +
timber.] This, like many other words of its class (e.g., back-timber,
q.v.), was once in serious use, but for a long period it has been going
down hill, and it is now a thorough-going vulgarism, only surviving
dialectically, and as slang. Massinger and the older dramatists
employed it seriously; toward the end of the seventeenth century it
began to be used in a ludicrous and vulgar sense. Butler employs it
thus, and in Charles Cotton’s Scarronides (1678), the hero we are told—
Lay thinking now his guts grew limber,
How they might get more belly-timber.
For synonyms generally, see Grub.
1614. Terence in English, Annona cara est. Corne is at a high
price; victuals are deare; belly-timber is hard to come by.
1637. Massinger, Guardian, III., iii.
Ador. Haste you unto my villa, and take all provisions along with
you....
Car. Trust me for belly-timber.
1663–78. S. Butler, Hudibras.
Through deserts vast,
And regions desolate they pass’d,
Where belly-timber, above ground
Or under, was not to be found.
1719. Poor Robin’s Almanack, Feb. On the 10th day of this month,
being Shrove-Tuesday, is like to be a great innundation of
belly-timber.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Belly-timber (s.), all sorts of
food.
1820. Scott, Monastery, ch. xv. ‘Yonder comes the monkish retinue
... 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.’
Belly-Up, adv. phr. (old).—Applied to women when enceinte. From the
protrusion of the abdomen which takes place under such
circumstances.—See Belly-full.
Belly-Vengeance, subs. (common).—Sour beer, apt to cause gastralgia.
The French call this pissin de cheval, i.e., ‘horse urine.’ For
synonyms, see Swipes.
Belongings, subs. (colloquial).—1. Qualities; endowments; faculties.