as in coming up
to come near or nearer
belly up to the buffet table and help yourselves
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Recent Examples of bellying up
Once called ''the funniest woman on TV,'' Catherine O'Hara spends much of her time these days bellying up against a snooker table at the Squeeze Club, a Toronto juice bar and pool hall.
—
Toria Sheffield, PEOPLE, 31 Jan. 2026
Across the river, Le Crocodile at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn brings a stylish, approachable scene for bellying up and indulging in sexy French cuisine.
—Jessica Chapel, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Jan. 2026
Swashbucklers, scoundrels, bandits and buccaneers will soon be bellying up to the bar inside a lively new pirate pub at Walt Disney World that’s already booked solid for the first two months and promises to be a must-have reservation for visitors.
—Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 29 Aug. 2025
Toria Sheffield, PEOPLE, 31 Jan. 2026
Across the river, Le Crocodile at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn brings a stylish, approachable scene for bellying up and indulging in sexy French cuisine.
—Jessica Chapel, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Jan. 2026
Swashbucklers, scoundrels, bandits and buccaneers will soon be bellying up to the bar inside a lively new pirate pub at Walt Disney World that’s already booked solid for the first two months and promises to be a must-have reservation for visitors.
—Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 29 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bellying up
Verb
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May came to the Wolverines after running the program at Florida Atlantic University, taking that program to the Final Four in 2023 and coming up one buzzer-beater shy of playing for a national title.—
Kyle Feldscher,
CNN Money,
3 Apr. 2026
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Home surveillance video from the incident shows the coyote coming up to the young child and biting them before running off.—
Chelsea Hylton,
CBS News,
3 Apr. 2026
Verb
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In terms of water availability alone, users along the Salt River system might have little to worry about, compared with the communities drawing on the dwindling Colorado River.—
Shi En Kim,
AZCentral.com,
31 Mar. 2026
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The idea — drawing on philosopher Nick Bostrom’s concept of differential technological development — is to accelerate the technologies that reduce risk and delay the ones that increase it.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
31 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Mullins fed him the ball with the clock running out, but Karaban, with two defenders closing in, dished it back to the freshman who hadn’t made a three the whole game.—
Dom Amore,
Hartford Courant,
3 Apr. 2026
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Meanwhile, in Seattle, Amanda was closing in on the person who hit her business.—
Rich Schapiro,
NBC news,
3 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The approaching Easter holiday often means an increase in the purchase and gifting of live rabbits, and a resulting spike in abandonments.—
Sharon Chin,
CBS News,
2 Apr. 2026
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It is now believed that Comet MAPS has an orbital period approaching 2,000 years, and may be a fragment of a daylight comet seen in 363 AD.—
Tony Hoffman,
PC Magazine,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Industrie Africa, the continent’s leading online multi-brand fashion retailer, is closing down just five years after launch, highlighting the volatility of the current e-commerce model on a regional and global scale.—
Ezreen Benissan,
Vogue,
2 Apr. 2026
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Other tips include not leaving pet food outside, not touching or feeding free-roaming animals, keeping yard landscaping trimmed, keeping lids on trash containers, and closing home crawlspaces.—
Julie Sharp,
CBS News,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Those are fighting words, and, in the coming days, the Pope can counter them as much through symbolic acts as through words of peace.—
Paul Elie,
New Yorker,
4 Apr. 2026
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Harrison, who declined to discuss his friend’s personal life, had a T-shirt made for Friday night’s vigil in Metayer’s honor at Coral Springs City Hall, one of several planned around South Florida in the coming days.—
Amanda Rosa,
Miami Herald,
4 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Bellying up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bellying%20up. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026.
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