Belly vs Nelly - What's the difference?

belly | nelly |


As a noun belly

is the abdomen.

As a verb belly

is to position one's belly.

As a proper noun nelly is

a spelling variant of nellie, a diminutive of the female given names eleanor and helen.

belly

English

Noun

(bellies)
  • The abdomen.
    • (Dunglison)
  • The stomach, especially a fat one.
  • The womb.
  • * Bible, Jer. i. 5
    • Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.
  • The lower fuselage of an airplane.
  • * 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 454:
    • There was no heat, and we shivered in the belly of the plane.
  • The part of anything which resembles the human belly in protuberance or in cavity; the innermost part.
    • the belly of a flask, muscle, sail, or ship
  • * Bible, Jonah ii. 2
    • Out of the belly of hell cried I.
  • (architecture) The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back.

    • Derived terms

    * beer belly * bellyache * belly button/belly-button * belly dance/belly-dance * belly dancer/belly-dancer * belly dancing * belly flop, bellyflop * bellyful * belly laugh/belly-laugh * bellyless * bellylike * belly of the beast * Delhi belly * fire in the belly * sawbelly * sharpbelly

    Usage notes

    * Formerly, all the splanchnic or visceral cavities were called bellies: the lower belly being the abdomen; the middle belly, the thorax; and the upper belly, the head.

    See also

    * have eyes bigger than one's belly * abdomen * bouk * stomach * tummy

    Verb

  • To position one's belly.
  • To swell and become protuberant; to bulge.
  • * Dryden
    • The bellying canvas strutted with the gale.
  • To cause to swell out; to fill.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Your breath of full consent bellied his sails.

    Derived terms

    * belly up

    nelly

    English

    Etymology 1

    Shortened from Nelly Duff'', for ''puff'', i.e. breath of ''life

    Noun

    (-) (not used in the plural)
  • (Cockney rhyming slang) Life.
    • Usage notes
    * Used principally in the phrase (not on your nelly).

    Etymology 2

    From the woman's name, Nelly

    Noun

    (nellies)
  • (derogatory, slang) An effeminate homosexual man.
  • (British, slang) A silly person.
  • A common name for the giant petrels, Macronectes giganteus'' and ''Macronectes halli
    • Hyponyms
    * (petrel) Antarctic giant petrel, northern piant petrel, southern giant fulmar, southern giant petrel

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (slang) Unmanly, effeminate.