bellied up; bellying up; bellies up
: to move close or next to
bellied up to the bar
Synonyms
Examples of belly-up in a Sentence
Verb
belly up to the buffet table and help yourselves
Recent Examples on the Web
Elizabeth Anne Brown, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2023
Small fish float belly-up alongside snakelike tubes of irrigation piping.
—Melissa Gomez, Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2023
Jack Tamisiea, New York Times, 14 July 2024
Some of the images are meant to be provocative: In one, a horseshoe crab, bronze and gleaming, lies belly up, stretching its legs toward the sky.
—Oli Turner, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for belly-up 
Adjective
Usually, a belly-up fish isn’t long for this world.
—Elizabeth Anne Brown, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2023
Small fish float belly-up alongside snakelike tubes of irrigation piping.
—Melissa Gomez, Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2023
Verb
In 2018, a team posited that the heavily armored animals often went belly up because of bloating as their carcasses floated out to sea.
—Jack Tamisiea, New York Times, 14 July 2024
Some of the images are meant to be provocative: In one, a horseshoe crab, bronze and gleaming, lies belly up, stretching its legs toward the sky.
—Oli Turner, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for belly-up
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'belly-up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near belly-up
Cite this Entry
“Belly-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belly-up. Accessed 26 Jul. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share