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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The school's annual trade show at the Javitz Center is coming up in April, which students work toward all year.—
Chris Wragge,
CBS News,
17 Apr. 2026
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Desires are coming up against resistance for a reason.—
Valerie Mesa,
PEOPLE,
17 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Hacker, whose brother Jacob is a sophomore on the team and whose father Darrell was an all-state player at Highland, has been drawing on the Indians’ loss to Valparaiso in the sectional championship game last season for motivation.—
Michael Osipoff,
Chicago Tribune,
21 Apr. 2026
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The fourth approach is human video learning, drawing on vast online datasets from platforms like YouTube and Douyin.—
Ni Tao,
Interesting Engineering,
20 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The cuts also include 53 non-teaching positions associated with schools that are closing in the 2026-27 school year, district spokesman John Sullivan said.—
Scott Travis,
Sun Sentinel,
16 Apr. 2026
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As the show's other characters and astronauts are closing in on their Eighties, Nedivi and Wolbert were keen on reinforcing venerable characters with a younger generation.—
Jeff Spry,
Space.com,
10 Apr. 2026
Verb
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With the midterms approaching, certain primaries have reflected broader debates about whether the Party might consider cursing more, capitalizing tweets, going Dark Woke.—
Jon Allsop,
New Yorker,
24 Apr. 2026
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If prediction markets are any indication, Democrats are heavy favorites to take the House in November, with a likelihood approaching 85%.—
Editorial,
Boston Herald,
24 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The company is also closing around 6,000 open roles, Janelle Gale, Meta’s chief people officer, wrote in a memo published by Bloomberg that Meta confirmed to CNN.—
Clare Duffy,
CNN Money,
23 Apr. 2026
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Shares of Texas Instruments soared 19% on Thursday, closing at a record.—
Katie Tarasov,
CNBC,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Then, there’s the collective Electronic Disturbance Theater, which was actually creating an internet tool that people could use to track where ICE was coming into communities.—
Lisa Deaderick,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
18 Apr. 2026
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During a press conference on Thursday, April 16, Wiseman, Glover and Koch, talked about their roller coaster of emotions since coming home.—
Paloma Chavez,
PEOPLE,
18 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Bellying up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bellying%20up. Accessed 25 Apr. 2026.
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