▪ I. belt, n.1
(bɛlt)
Also 5–7 belte.
[Common Teut.: OE. bęlt, cogn. with OHG. balz (? masc.), prob.:—OTeut. *baltjo-z, ad. L. balteus girdle. ON. has balti (neut.), perh. ad. L. balteum, common in med.L.]
1. a. A broadish, flat strip of leather or similar material, used to gird or encircle the person, confine some part of the dress, and to support various articles of use or ornament. Often described by the part of the body encircled (as waist-belt, shoulder-belt), or the article supported (as sword-belt, cartridge-belt).
| a 1000 Harl. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 192 Baltheum, cingulum, uel belt. a 1100 Cott. Gl. ibid. 359 Balteum gyrdel, oððe belt. 1375 Barbour Bruce x. 175 And ber Ane hatchat, that wer scharp to scher Undre hys belt. c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's T. 9 And by his belt he baar a long panade. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 159 He that buckles him in my belt. 1676 G. Etherege Man of Mode iii. i. (1684) 31 Get your right leg firm on the ground, adjust your Belt. 1715 Lond. Gaz. No. 5376/3 A Cartouch Pouch, with a Shoulder belt, a Sword with a Waist-belt. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. ii. 24 The sword..hung from a belt that passed over the shoulder. |
b. esp. one worn as a mark of rank or distinction
e.g. in
Boxing and
Wrestling. In
Judo: see
black belt 3.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 162 Boþe þe barres of his belt & oþer blyþe stones. 1673 Cave Prim. Chr. i. v. 110 An officer..threw away his belt, rather than obey that impious command. 1812 ‘One of the Fancy’ Boxiana 422 We understand that an emblematical Belt has been some time preparing for the Champion, but not yet presented to him. 1822 Sporting Mag. X. 106/2 Cribb was decorated with the belt, in the front of which are a couple of silver fists, and on each side are two large circles of silver plate, with inscriptions engraved on them. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis xlv, They fight each other for the champion's belt and two hundred pounds a side. 1872 R. D. Blackmore Maid of Sker ii. xxvii. 10 He had held the belt seven years..for wrestling, as well as for bruising. 1889 E. B. Michell Boxing & Sparring (Badm. Libr.) i. 125 The belt—the emblem of modern championship in the P.R. |
c. fig.| 1483 Cath. Angl. 27/1 A belte of lechery, cestus. a 1500 Songs Costume (1849) 60 Hir belt suld be of benignitie About her middill meit. 1605 Shakes. Macb. v. ii. 17 He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause Within the belt of Rule. |
d. to hit (or strike) below the belt (from the language of pugilists) is used
fig. for ‘to act unfairly in any contest’.
| 1889 E. B. Michell Boxing & Sparring (Badm. Libr.) i. 125 The rule against hitting below the belt. 1890 Farmer Slang I. 175/1 To strike a man below the belt..is akin with ‘To stab a man in the back’. 1891 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 485/2 No man might be struck below the belt—the belt in practice being a handkerchief tied tightly round the waist. 1891 [see hitting vbl. n.]. 1903 Punch 1 July 453 Call this Fair Trade, hitting me below the Belt? |
e. to tighten (etc.) one's belt: to stave off hunger, to bear the pangs of hunger philosophically. Also
fig.| [1841 Lever C. O'Malley xx, ‘Perhaps not’ lisped Melville, tightening his belt; ‘but it's devilish convivial.’] 1887 Kipling Life's Handicap (1891) 290, I also was once starved, and tightened my belt on the sharp belly-pinch. 1907 Mulford Bar-20 v. 46 They's three things that's good for famine... Yu can pull in your belt, yu can drink, an' yu can eat. 1927 Observer 24 Apr. 15/3 A travelling troupe who quoted Corneille while tightening their belts. |
f. Colloq. phr. under one's belt, in one's stomach. Also
fig.| 1839 Spirit of Times 21 Dec. 498/3 Away we went, each bearing, under his belt, his full share of the antifogmatical..compound. 1938 Craigie & Hulbert Dict. Amer. Eng. I. 193/2 Belt, v... To put under one's belt; to swallow. 1954 Manch. Guardian Weekly 12 Aug. 12 His wife had 135,000 miles driving in the States under her belt..but was still failed. 1954 Wodehouse in Encounter Oct. 19/1 Just as you have got Hamlet and Macbeth under your belt. 1962 J. Wain Strike Father Dead v. 216 He wanted me to get plenty of Latin and Greek under the belt so that I could be like him. |
g. One used to support the figure; a suspender-belt; a corset.
| 1880 Draper's Jrnl. 24 June p. iii (Advt.), Important to ladies. The new model figure belts. Ibid., Our special ladies supporting belts are strongly recommended..for giving great support both before and after accouchement. 1932 R. Lehmann Invit. Waltz i. ix. 98 Etty wears..just her belt and knickers. 1952 C. W. Cunnington Eng. Women's Clothes vii. 238 Slim-fitting knickers to replace panties and belt. 1961 Housewife Apr. 114/2 Dainty bra..matching belt with adjustable suspenders. |
2. transf. A broadish strip or stripe of any kind, or a continuous series of objects, encircling or girdling something:
a. gen.| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., s.v., The denomination belt is also applied to a sort of bandage in use among surgeons. 1788 J. C. Smyth in Med. Commun. II. 184 The Zona, or Belt..seems to partake of the nature of a herpes. 1857 Emerson Poems 163 A belt of mirrors round a taper's flame. 1875 Fortnum Maiolica v. 49 The body is decorated with two belts of grotesques. |
b. esp. of the physical features of a landscape.
| 1810 Southey Kehama xxi. iii, A level belt of ice which bound..The waters of the sleeping Ocean round. 1834 Brit. Husb. I. 473 To plant a belt of Scotch firs around the inside of the circular drain. 1850 Prescott Peru II. 216 The American hunter, who endeavours to surround himself with a belt of wasted land, when overtaken by a conflagration. |
c. spec. in
Astr.| 1664 Phil. Trans. I. 3 He hath remarked in the Belts of Jupiter the shaddows of his satellites. 1787 Bonnycastle Astron. iii. 44 The body of Jupiter is surrounded by several parallel faint substances called Belts. 1830 Tennyson Poems 113 The burning belts, the mighty rings, The murmurous planets' rolling choir. |
3. Mech. a. A broad flat strap of leather, india-rubber, etc. passing round two wheels or shafts, and communicating motion from one to the other.
| 1795 Specif. Patent No. 2034 The wood roller..has its motion by a pulley and belt. 1885 Engineer 15 May (Advt.), Main Driving Belts..to transmit any required H.P. |
b. In a machine gun, a length of woven fabric or of metal plates pinned together, fitted with cartridges and revolving on the feed-block.
| 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 403/1 Figs. 7 and 8 show the feed-block and method of packing the cartridge belts. The greatest number usually carried in a belt is 250. Ibid. 406/1 A belt of cartridges..has been placed on the feed-wheel. 1914 Scotsman 26 Sept. 5/6 The belt of the gun [sc. a Maxim] was still charged. |
c. An assembly-belt or conveyor. Also
transf. orig. U.S.| 1908, 1909 [see belt conveyor]. 1936 B. & S. Spewack Boy meets Girl i. 13 We are dealing here with a factory that manufactures entertainment in approved sizes; that puts the seven arts right on the belt. 1937 U. Sinclair Flivver King (1938) lxxiv. 194 I'd rather take my chance on the belt. 1938 Reader's Digest Jan. 123/2 Automobiles leaving the belt as finished products. |
4. A broadish flexible strap. (The idea of encircling or girdling here begins to disappear.)
| 1672 T. Venn Mil. & Mar. Discip. iii. 8 He is to have a good Harquebuz, hanging on a belt into a swivel. 1753 Douglass Brit. Settlem. N. Amer. 219 Our Indians formerly accounted by single Wampum, by Strings of Wampum, and by Belts of Wampum, in the same manner as the English account by the Denominations of Pence, Shillings, and Pounds. 1885 Nature XXXI. 415 The cartridges [of a self-loading gun] are placed in a belt formed of two bands of tape, before they are placed in the box, and one end of this belt is placed in the gun. |
5. a. A broad band or stripe characteristically distinguished from the surface it crosses; a tract or district long in proportion to its breadth. Also, a zone or district,
usu. with defining term denoting the principal product or characteristic.
Cf. Bible belt,
black belt 1,
green belt.
orig. U.S.| 1808 Wilford Sacr. Isles in Asiat. Res. VIII. 264 A range or belt about forty degrees broad, across the old continent. 1852 Conybeare & H. St. Paul (1862) I. vi. 159 Three belts of vegetation are successively passed through in ascending from the coast. 1869 Overland Monthly III. 12 Between the short-staple [cotton] belt and the rice and long-staple belt of the coast. 1871 R. Somers Southern States xxxvii. 263 The ‘Cotton Belt’ of the Southern States. 1875, etc. [see black belt 1]. 1877 H. Spofford Pilot's Wife in Casquet Lit. IV. 13/2 Bert's boat might have been beyond its [the storm's] belt. 1879 Tourgee Fool's Err. xlvi. 353 You have just come through the infected belt [of yellow fever]. 1891 Harper's Mag. Aug. 446/2 A fierce storm swept over the whole gold belt. 1903 A. B. Hart Actual Govt. 116 Illinois is divided into a wheat belt, a corn belt, and the city of Chicago. 1960 Spectator 29 July 173 The Copper Belt is necessary to Southern Rhodesia. 1960 Observer 25 Dec. 7/6 A stately great drag headed for the stockbrokers' belt. 1968 D. E. Allen Brit. Tastes ii. 43 Affluent couples..on the coast who leapfrog the dormitory belt altogether. 1968 C. Forsyte Murder with Minarets iii. 11 One could live abroad and still be only on the tattered fringes of the servant belt. |
b. Geog. Great Belt and
Little Belts, two channels between the Cattegat and the Baltic.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., The belts belong to the King of Denmark. |
c. Arch. ‘A course of stones projecting from the naked, either moulded, plain, or fluted.’ Gwilt.
d. Naval Arch. A series of thick iron plates running along the water-line in armoured vessels.
| 1885 Pall Mall G. 21 Jan. 1/1 Naval officers will feel profoundly uncomfortable in taking an ironclad without a complete belt into action. 1885 Times 10 Apr. 3 A short armoured belt..extending over less than half the length of the ship. |
¶ belt of pater-nosters or
belt of Our Fathers:
In the Acts of the Council of Celchyth, an. 816 (Haddan & Stubbs
Councils & Eccl. Doc. III. 584), occurs the passage ‘et xxx diebus canonicis horis expleto synaxeos æt vii beltidum, Paternoster pro eo cantetur,’ of which the latter part ‘at the seven bell-hours let the Paternoster be sung for him,’ has given rise to one of the most grotesque blunders on record. The
OE. words
æt vii
beltidum, ‘at the seven bell-hours,’ a gloss on ‘
canonicis horis’ preceding, were taken by Spelman as Latin, and construed with the following word as a ‘paternoster of seven belts,’ which he explained as a
rosary. Du Cange repeated the explanation, though questioning the existence of the rosary at that date. Johnson the Nonjuror (
Eccl. Laws 1720) elaborately described ‘belts’ set with studs serving the purpose of a rosary. Scott (
Suppl. to Chambers, 1753) suggested as a better rendering, ‘a paternoster to be repeated seven times.’ In all these there was an attempt to construe the passage, but in later ‘explanations’ the grammatical construction has been dismissed, and ‘vii beltidum, paternoster’ transmuted into ‘seven belts of paternosters,’ as in the following curious specimens of modern mythology:
| 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) II. ix. 62 The frequent repetition of the Lord's Prayer, technically called a belt of Pater-nosters. Note. A belt of Pater-nosters appears to correspond with a string of beads of later times..It is probable that the belt contained fifty Pater-nosters. 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers III. viii. 8 Seven belts of Our Fathers had to be said for the deceased. |
6. Comb. and
attrib.:
a. objective with
vbl. n. or
pple., as
belt-cutter,
belt-maker,
belt-splicing,
belt-stretcher,
belt-tightener;
b. attrib., as
belt-armour,
belt-clasp,
belt-coupling. Also
belt conveyor (see
quot. 1909)
= conveyor belt;
belt-driven a. (
Mech.), driven by means of a flexible endless belt; hence
belt drive, driving mechanism of this type;
belt-driving vbl. n.;
belt-knife, (
a) a knife carried in a belt for use as a weapon, hunting-knife, etc.; (
b)
U.S., a revolving knife on the bandsaw principle, used in splitting hides or skins;
belt-lacing, thongs for lacing together the ends of machine belts;
belt line (
U.S.), a railway, tram-line, or road that makes a complete circuit of a city; also
attrib.; so
belt tram;
† belt-money, ? a gratuity to soldiers;
belt-pipe, a steam-pipe surrounding the cylinder of a steam-engine;
belt-punch, an instrument for punching holes in belts;
belt-saw (
= band-saw; see
band n.2 III);
belt-shifter, a contrivance for shifting a belt from pulley to pulley;
belt-speeder, a contrivance consisting of two cone-pulleys carrying a belt, by which varying rates of motion are transmitted;
† belt-stead,
-stid, the place of the belt, the waist;
belt-tightening vbl. n., (
a) the tightening of a belt; (
b)
fig. (the introduction of) rigorous economies (
cf. sense 1 e above); also
attrib.;
belt-wise adv., in the manner of a belt.
| 1885 Pall Mall G. 14 Jan. 11/1 Ships stripped of their *belt armour. |
| 1908 Engineering Mag. Dec. 440 The original *belt conveyor consisted of a very wide belt running on straight idlers and carrying a small amount of material distributed along the middle. 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl. s.v. conveyer, A belt-conveyer employs a broad endless belt of leather, rubber, or similar fabric, running over stationary rollers placed at equal distances apart. When in operation a stream of light material, such as grain, can be fed to the belt and be transported at high speed in large quantities. 1930 Engineering 13 June 783/1 (heading) Portable Belt Conveyor. |
| 1906 Motor Cycles & how to manage Them (ed. 10) 89 Types of *Belt Drive. 1907 Daily Chron. 17 Oct. 8/2 A motor cycle..with belt drive. 1934 Discovery Nov. 324/2 Two-stroke petrol engine, connected by belt-drive to a 200 watt alternator. |
| 1893 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 5 May 622/1 Seventeen dynamos, all *belt-driven. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 26 Mar. 10/2 The old belt-driven Benz [motor car] of a prehistoric past. 1908 Ibid. 30 Jan. 4/1 A belt-driven fan. |
| 1892 J. Nasmith Students' Cotton Spinning Index 428 *Belt Driving. 1902 H. Sturmey in A. C. Harmsworth Motors x. 186 Belt driving is quite silent in running. Ibid. 195 Belt-driving cars have usually two belts running on pulleys of different sizes. |
| 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. II. xv 159 The *belt-ice at their foot was old and undisturbed. |
| 1840 C. F. Hoffman Greyslaer I. 234 The hand of the Mohawk clutched the *belt-knife..half drawn from its sheath. 1895 Daily News 21 Mar. 5/7 That they had not..so much as a belt knife. 1909 H. G. Bennett Manuf. Leather 279 There are three types of splitting machine, the ‘union’, the vibrating knife, and the band-knife (or belt-knife) machine. |
| 1894 Cent. Mag. Dec. 290 De *Belt Line stables ain't no Hoffman House. 1900 Engineering Mag. XIX. 698 The belt-line railway, running largely in cuttings and underground. 1903 N.Y. Times 24 Oct. 2 George B. McClellan and Edward M. Grout were scheduled for a belt line tour of speechmaking. 1922 Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Okla.) 6 Jan. 6/5 A belt line of gravel highway is now under construction around the city of Ardmore. 1966 Economist 26 Mar. 1234/1 Circumferential ‘belt lines’ around cities could be built more quickly than radial routes leading into their older centres. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 27/1 A *belte maker, zonarius. 1679 Trial Wakeman 44 Mr. Cott, a Beltmaker in the New Exchange. |
| 1648 Petit. Eastern Ass. 18 Is not *Belt-money the dispendium of our possessions? |
| c 1400 Destr. Troy xiv. 5940 Slit hym down sleghly thurghe the slote euyn, Bode at the *belt stid, and the buerne deghit. |
| 1879 Daily News 6 Nov. 5/3 They were armoured on the *belt system, their thickest plates being confined to the neighbourhood of the water-line. |
| 1910 Installation News IV. 50/2 Shifting the motor along the slide rails for *belt tightening purposes. 1961 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 13/2 Belt tightening is not just a phrase but must become a reality. 1979 Dædalus Spring 121 Instead of this belt-tightening strategy, these countries [sc. non-oil developing countries] have in fact maintained important levels of imports and of economic activity. 1983 Listener 19 May 4/1 A further round of belt-tightening will be required, through additional cuts in public spending. |
| 1894 J. Dale Round the World 333 The *belt tram took us round the city, 8 miles. |
| 1667 E. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. iv. (1743) 173 They wear a scarlet Ribbon *belt-wise. |
Add:
[6.] beltway U.S., a highway circling all or part of a city or other metropolitan area,
esp. that around Washington,
D.C.; a ring road; also
transf. (
freq. attrib.) Washington,
D.C., as the seat of the
U.S. government.
| 1952 Sun (Baltimore) 22 Jan. 7/2 Preliminary construction on the proposed *beltway circling the city through Baltimore county is expected to get under way. 1973 Times 13 Aug. 10/7 The beltway built round Washington to relieve traffic jams was jammed with traffic. 1986 Observer 14 Dec. 12/11 Two weeks ago Reagan was complaining that the whole affair was a ‘Beltway’ scandal, of interest only to people who live in the self-obsessed world inside Washington's ring road. |
▪ II. † belt, n.2 Obs. [Prob. distinct from prec., but nothing is known of its derivation.] An axe.
| a 1300 W. de Biblesworth in Wright Voc. 163 The belte, le coing. 1499 Promp. Parv. (Pynson), Belt or ax, securis. c 1500 Carpenter's T. in Halliw. Nugæ P. 13 ‘Wherefore,’ seyd the belte, ‘With grete strokes I schalle hym pelte.’ |
▪ III. belt, n.3 ?
Obs. (See
belt v. 5 and
ppl. a.)
| c 1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) I. 156 What money was yearly made by sale of the locks belts and tags of the sheep. 1741 Compl. Fam. Piece iii. 494 Of the Tag or Belt in Sheep. 1753 in Chambers Cycl. Supp.; and in later. Dicts. |
▪ IV. belt, n.4 colloq. [f. belt v. (sense 4).] A heavy blow or stroke.
| 1899 Somerville & ‘Ross’ Exper. Irish R.M. 217 Will I give him [sc. a horse] a couple o' belts, your Honour? 1911 Masefield Everl. Mercy 33 I'd like to hit the world a belt. 1927 Glasgow Herald 26 Aug. 11 [He] took three mighty belts at the ball. 1934 in Sc. Nat. Dict., He gave the man a belt on the jaw. 1953 L. A. G. Strong Hill of Howth 68 He'd give Moo a belt in the puss. |
▪ V. belt, v. (
bɛlt)
Pa. pple. 6
belt.
[f. belt n.1] 1. a. trans. and refl. To gird with a belt; to engirdle;
spec. to invest with a distinctive belt,
e.g. of knighthood.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 15285 Wid a tuel he belted his sides. Ibid. 3365 Sco belted hir bettur on hir wede. Ibid. 6087 Yee be alle belted, wit staf in hand. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. ix. xix. 51 Ðe Lord Schire Davy de Lyndesay Wes Erle maid..and he beltit swa. c 1570 Bp. St. Andrew's in Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 327 A cott of kelt, Weill beltit in ane lethrone belt. 1813 Scott Rokeby iii. xxx, Allen-a-Dale was ne'er belted a knight. |
| fig. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. 238 Belt you thairfore, lusty gallandis, with manheid and wisdome. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. 267 Belt our loynyeis with verite. |
b. refl. To gird oneself
with a weapon.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. viii. 444 Beltyd wyth his Swerd alsua. 1513 Douglas æneis iv. v. 159 Belt he was with a swerd of mettall brycht. 1820 Scott Abbot iii, There ne'er was gentleman but who belted him with the brand. |
c. trans. To fasten on with a belt, gird on (a weapon, shield, etc.).
| 1513 Douglas æneis ii. x. (ix.) 9 A swerd, but help, about him beltis he. a 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus i. 163 Ane sword was belt about his [loins]. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 60 Bootelesse morglay to his sydes hee belted. 1782 Pennant Journ. Chester (R.) An enormous shield..is belted to his body. 1822 Scott Nigel xi, A trustier old Trojan never belted a broadsword by a loop of leather. |
2. transf. To surround with a circle or zone of any kind; to engirdle; to mark with an encircling band.
spec. to girdle (a tree) by stripping off the bark (
U.S.).
| 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. I. 117 Thay wer belttit about on every side with enimes. 1812 H. Marshall Hist. Kentucky 14 These improvements..consisted principally in..belting the larger trees. 1814 Wordsw. Wh. Doe iv. 205 They belt him round with hearts undaunted. 1832 H. Martineau Each & All vi. 72 The trees belted the churchyard. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville (1849) 225 He [the beaver] makes incisions round them [trees], or, in technical phrase, belts them with his teeth. 1853 P. P. Kennedy Blackwater Chron. xiv. 216 One man,..in a hundred days, would belt or deaden one hundred acres. |
3. To mark with bands or stripes of colour, etc.
| 1782 T. Warton Hist. Kiddington 67 (R.) Ramperts..belting the hills far and wide with white. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. cccv, Moments in which the meteors belted the sky like the meridians on a terrestrial globe. |
4. a. To thrash with a belt.
Cf. to strap.
| 1649 in Rogers Soc. Life Scotl. II. 217 Comitted to Alexander Cuming to see him belted be his mother. a 1700 in Somers Tracts (1811) V. 460, I wad she were wele belted with a bridle. 1818 Hogg Brownie II. 162 (Jam.), ‘I wish he had beltit your shoulders.’ 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Belt, to beat with a colt or rope's end. |
b. Various slang uses: (
a) To hit; to attack; (
b)
to belt (the bottle), to drink heavily; (
c) to sing, play, or speak with great vigour (
const. out).
| 1838 J. C. Neal Charcoal Sketches 46 He intends to belt me, does he? Take a stick —. 1884 ‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn 21 They [sc. genies] don't think nothing of..belting a Sunday-School superintendent over the head. 1909 Ware Passing Eng. 25/2 There comes that old maid; belt her. 1912 Galsworthy Pigeon ii. 55 Megan'll get his mates to belt him. 1957 I. Cross God Boy (1958) xviii. 152 It [sc. a dog] cut right across the road..and was belted by a wool truck. |
| 1931 Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) ii. 43 Jack takes to belting the old grape right freely to get his zing back. 1960 Observer 18 Sept. 19/2 He is given to belting the bottle. |
| 1953 Sat. Rev. Lit. 12 Dec. 55/1 Standing there..belting out the sophisticated sweetness of Porter's ‘Get Out of Town’. 1959 J. Steinbeck Once there was War xix, One of the finest jazz combos I ever heard was belting out pure ecstasy. |
5. (See
quots.:
app. To shear off a belt of wool.)
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §41 To belte shepe. Yf any shepe raye or be fyled with dounge about the tayle, take a payre of sheres, and clyppe it awaye, etc. 1688 Holme Armory ii. ix. 176 Belting of sheep, is the dressing of them from filth. 1842 C. Johnson Farmer's Encycl. I. 196 To belt, in some districts signifies to shear the buttocks and tails of sheep. |
6. trans. To connect with a machine-driven belt. Also
absol.| 1902 J. S. Thompson Mech. Linotype (1908) xxiv. 169 The size of the pulley on the motor to which it is belted will decrease the speed. Ibid. 172 To drive the machine by belting directly to the intermediate shaft. |
7. intr. To hurry, to rush.
slang (
orig. dial. and
U.S.).
| 1890 J. D. Robertson Gloss. Dial. Gloucester, Belt v. to racket or bustle about. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 57/2, I belted along as fast as the waders and treacherous footing would allow. 1942 We speak from Air vii. 24 A picture of two Me. 109's belting down on your tail from out of the sun. 1949 D. M. Davin Roads from Home iii. iii. 227 Looked like the one that raced us on the way up this morning... He's belting it out by the look of him. 1958 K. Amis I like it Here 179 Getting up as she often did to..switch off the immersion heater, belting downstairs to let that sod of a dog in. 1962 New Statesman 18 May 710/1 Cor, we used to belt along that road. |
8. Slang
phr. to belt up: to be quiet, ‘shut up’. Usu. as
imp.| 1949 Partridge Dict. Slang (ed. 3) Add., Belt up: Shut up!: R.A.F.: since ca. 1937. 1958 News Chron. 22 May, Belt up is just another way of saying be quiet. 1959 M. Pugh Chancer v. 57 Why don't you belt up?.. Go and boil your can. 1969 Listener 30 Jan. 147/3 May we hope that Hamilton will do a service to art by belting up and going back to school? |
▪ VI. belt, ppl. a. [? short for belted, f. prec.; sense 5. Cf. belt n.3] (See
quot.)
| 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. iii. xvii. (1668) 91 A sheep is said to be Tag'd or Belt, when by a continual squirt running out of his ordure he berayeth his tail, in such wise, that through the heat of the dung it scaldeth, and breedeth the scab therein. [So in 1741 Compl. Fam. Piece iii. 494.] |