▪ I. belly-ache, n.
(ˈbɛlɪeɪk)
[f. belly n. + ache, which see for forms.]
a. ‘The colic or pain in the bowels.’ Johnson. bellyache (-bush, -weed), names given to the Jatropha gossypifolia; belly-ache-root = angelica.
| 1552 Huloet, Disceased with bealye ache, or freatynge in the bealye. 1750 G. Hughes Barbados 152 The Belly-Ach. The roots of this shrub are..white, penetrating deep into the earth. 1775 Adair Amer. Ind. 412 Angelica, or belly-ach-root is one of their physical greens. 1804 Southey Lett. (1856) I. 268 A supper so hearty, That it gave him a sad belly-ache. 1967 A. Wilson No Laughing Matter ii. 76 Don't blame me if you all get the bellyache. |
b. [f. next.] A querulous complaint.
| 1930 W. R. Burnett Iron Man i. i. 9 ‘Now start your belly-ache,’ said Regan. ‘To hear you talk you'd think you really did some training.’ |
▪ II. ˈbelly-ache, v. slang. orig. U.S.
[f. belly-ache n.]
intr. To complain querulously or unreasonably; to whine, grizzle. Hence belly-aching vbl. n. and ppl. a.; belly-acher, one who so complains.
| 1888 Farmer Americanisms 50/2 Employés bellyache at being overworked, or when they fancy themselves underfed. A vulgarism. 1923 U. L. Silberrad Lett. J. Armiter vi. 132 Not a bad sort of woman, except that she's always belly⁓aching about money. 1930 S. Henry Conquering Amer. Plains xvii. 221 These voluble doubters were commonly called old croakers, backbiters, ‘belly⁓achers’. 1931 E. Linklater Juan in Amer. iv. i. 272 Another of these belly-aching German war books. Who started the War, anyway? 1933 E. Caldwell God's Little Acre i. 8, I reckon there's enough to complain about these days if a fellow wants to belly-ache some. 1934 ‘G. Orwell’ Burmese Days xv. 230 Other people..will listen to their belly-achings with sympathy. Ibid. xv. 232 It was an impertinence to go belly-aching on and on about myself. 1958 Listener 13 Nov. 791/2 The subordinate who argued about orders was always ‘a bellyacher’. 1959 Times 22 July 5/4 The ‘belly-aching’ was over the pay cut, not the principle of negotiation. |