▪ I. paunch, n.1
(pɔːn(t)ʃ, pɑːn(t)ʃ)
Forms: 4–6 panche, paunche, 4–8 panch, (5 pawnche, pownche), 6– paunch. Also Sc. and north. dial. 6 penche, painche, 8–9 pench, 9 pensch, painch.
[ME. a. ONF. panche = OF. pance, now panse = Pr. pansa, Cat. panxa, Sp. panza, Pg. pan{cced}a, It. pancia:—Com. Rom. type *pantica, f. L. pantex, pantic-em paunch, bowels.]
1. The belly, abdomen; the stomach, as the receptacle of food (= belly n. 5).
Now, as said of the human subject, usually dyslogistic, and implying prominence, gluttony, etc.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce ix. 398 Our lordis of france, that ay With gud morsellis farsis thair panch. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 87 He shal haue a penaunce in his paunche. 1486 Bk. St. Albans E iij b, All thyng with in the wombe saue onli the gall The paunche also. 1548 Latimer Ploughers (Arb.) 26 So troubeled wyth Lordelye lyuynge..pamperynge of theyr panches. 1583 Leg. Bp. St. Androis Pref. 124 Packand thair penche lyk Epicurians. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. Introd., The lowest belly, commonly called Abdomen or the Paunch. 1777 G. Forster Voy. round World II. 68 He..had a most portly paunch. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus xxxix. 11 A frugal Umbrian body, Tuscan huge of paunch. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. xxii. 196 Spider's foot and paunch of toad. |
| fig. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 84 Deadlye Charybdis..In to gut vpsouping three tymes thee flash water angrye, From paunch alsoe spuing toe the sky the plash hastlye receaued. 1596 Nashe Saffron-Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 163 Throughout the whole pawnch of his booke, hee is as infinite in commending her. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. i. Wks. 1856 I. 17 Straight chops a wave, and in his sliftred panch Downe fals our ship. |
2. The first and largest stomach of a ruminant; the rumen.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 955 A rammes paunche. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. i. 94 In place of potis and sik seithing vesselis, the painches of ane ox or ane kow thay vset. 1715 Cheyne Philos. Princ. Relig. i. (1716) 360 As in Beasts, the Panch, the Read, and the Feck. 1836–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. II. 11/1 The..food..is received into the first stomach..which is termed the..paunch. |
b. pl. Entrails, viscera. (Now Sc. and north.)
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 172 b, The kyng in huntyng tyme hath slain iii. C. dere, and the garbage and paunches bee cast round about in euery quarter of the Parke. 1789 Davidson Seasons, Spring 3 Himself wi' penches staw'd, he [an eagle] dights his neb. |
c. esp. as used for food; tripe.
| c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 7 Trype de Motoun.—Take þe pownche of a chepe. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxxii. 25 Panches, pudingis of Jok and Jame. 1665 Ld. Fountainhall Jrnl. (1900) 79 We have eaten panches heir. 1724 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 91 Well scraped paunches. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Painches, tripe. 1827 Lytton Pelham lxiii, I would sooner feed my poodle on paunch and liver. |
3. Comb.: † paunch-bellied a., big-bellied, pot-bellied; † paunch-clout, the membrane enveloping the bowels, the omentum; † paunch-gut n., a big belly, a pot-belly; a. = paunch-bellied (also † paunch-gutted a.); paunch-kettle, the paunch of an animal used like a kettle to boil flesh in; † paunch-porer (tr. L. extispex), an augur who divined by inspecting the entrails of animals; so † paunch-poring; † paunch-pot, ? a pot of a bulging shape; paunch-swollen a., having a swollen paunch; paunch-wrapt a., wrapped in the paunch (in quot., in utero).
| c 1672 Roxb. Ball. (1888) VI. 500 A *paunch-belly'd Hostiss. 1733 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVIII. 179 She [female beaver] was very thick, paunch-bellied. |
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 387/1 *Pawncheclowt, or trype. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 599/2 Omentum, an{supc}⊇ a pauncheclout. |
| 1683 Kennett tr. Erasm. on Folly 17 O swinish *paunch-gut God (say they). 1742 Jarvis Quix. ii. iii. xi. (1749) 247 All that paunch-gut and little carcase of thine. |
| 1726 Arbuthnot Diss. Dumpling (ed. 5) 6 These *Paunch-gutted Fellows. |
| 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. ix. 268 The Asiatic *paunch-kettles. |
| 1656 W. D. tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. §599. 183 Their Extispicium, or *panch-poring, where the extispex, or *panch-porer, did it by viewing the entrails of the sacrifices. |
| 1600 Will of Sir R. Bedingfield (Somerset Ho.), [The] parcell guilt *paunche pot given at her Christening. |
| 1638–48 G. Daniel Eclog iii. 156 Till *panch-swolne Bromius sleeps. |
| a 1592 Marlowe Ovid's Eleg. ii. xiv, She that her *paunch-wrapt child hath slain. |
Hence ˈpaunchful, bellyful.
| 1824 New Monthly Mag. X. 507 Four times can an active fellow Eat his paunchful in a day. |
▪ II. paunch, panch, n.2 Naut.
(pɔːn(t)ʃ, pɑːn(t)ʃ)
Also 8 pantch.
[app. the same word as prec., and paunce n.; in sense prob. derived from the latter.]
a. A thick strong mat, made of interlaced spun yarn or strands of rope, employed in various places on a ship to prevent chafing. b. A wooden covering or shield on the fore side of a mast (rubbing paunch), to preserve it from chafing when the masts or spars are lowered or raised.
| 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 15 Paunches, and such like. 1627 ― Seaman's Gram. v. 25 That which we call a Panch, are broad clouts, wouen of Thrums and Sinnet together, to saue things from galling about the maine and fore yards at the ties, and also from the masts [etc.]. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 13 The front-fish, or paunch, is a long plank of fir, hollowed to the convexity of the mast, and fastened on the foreside of the mast over the iron hoops. 1848 G. Biddlecombe Art Rigging 23 Panch, a covering of wood, or thick texture made of plaited ropeyarn, larger than a mat, to preserve the masts, &c., from chafing. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 9 Rubbing paunch, a batten up and down the forepart of a lower mast, to keep the lower yards clear of the hoops when going up or down. |
c. Comb., as paunch-mat, paunch-piece (= b).
| c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 16 Bowsprit, paunch piece, or gammoning fish. Ibid. 31 Describe a paunch mat and its use. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Paunch-mat, a thick and strong mat formed by interweaving sinnet or strands of rope as close as possible; it is fastened on the outside of the yards or rigging, to prevent their chafing. |
▪ III. paunch, v.1 Now rare or dial., exc. in 2.
(pɔːn(t)ʃ, pɑːn(t)ʃ)
Also 6–7 panch(e.
[app. f. paunch n.1 Palsgr. translates the English verb by a F. pancer which is not otherwise known; but Florio has It. panciare ‘to paunch or vnbowell’.]
1. trans. To stab or wound in the paunch; also loosely, to stab.
| 1530 Palsgr. 652/1, I panche a man or a beest, I perysshe his guttes with a weapen, je pance. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V 50 b, Other had..their bellies paunched. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iii. ii. 98 Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake. 1699 Garth Dispens. v. (1706) 91 One Pass had paunch'd the huge hydropick Knight. 1819 Keats K. Stephen i. ii. 42 He flung The heft away..It paunch'd the Earl of Chester's horse. 1848 [see paunching below]. |
2. To cut open the paunch of (an animal) and take out the viscera; to disembowel, eviscerate.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 22/35 To Panche, euiscerare. 1598 Florio, Viscerare, to panche, or pull out the bowels. 1677 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. 80 Then he is to pounch [ed. 1721 paunch] him, rewarding the Hounds therewith. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 135 When you have paunched and cased your hare. 1884 R. Jefferies Red Deer v. 99 When a stag is killed and paunched. 1906 Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 681/2 The animals [sc. rabbits] have to be killed, bled, and paunched. 1952 F. White Good Eng. Food ii. 111 One of the things I had to do before I was twenty was to paunch and skin a hare. |
† 3. To stuff the stomach with food; to fill the belly, to glut. (Also intr. for refl.) Obs.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. ii. 344 b, Now ye see hym ful paunched, as lyons are... And in deede the lyons are more gentle when their bealyes are well filled. 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. ii. ii. 62 Rather..pale with learned cares, Than paunched with thy choyce of changed fares. 1612 tr. Benvenuto's Passenger i. 139 If you did but see him..in what sort he vseth to glut and panch himselfe. 1635 Quarles Embl. i. ii. (1718) 10 Now glutt'ny paunches. |
4. To swallow hastily or greedily. rare.
| 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe Wks. (Grosart) V. 279 The Fisherman..pauncht him vp at a mouthfull. 1892 San Francisco Examiner 28 Aug., Paunching blobs and dollops of fat. |
Hence ˈpaunching vbl. n.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Desolladura, paunching, Euisceratio. 1848 Chambers Inform. for People I. 599/1 When..the [cow's] stomach [is] so much distended with the air, that there is danger of immediate suffocation or bursting—in these instances the puncture of the maw must be instantly performed, which is called paunching. 1892 Pall Mall G. 24 Mar. 2/1 The least pleasant part of the luncheon hour is the paunching of the birds..which is often a disgusting evidence of the slaughter. |
▪ IV. † paunch, v.2 Obs. rare.
[a. F. pancher, obs. form (16–17th c. in Littré and Cotgr.) of pencher to incline.]
intr. To incline, lean, have a penchant, physically or mentally.
| 1577 F. de L'isle's Leg. G iv, They determined a while to let her paunch some times one way, and some times another, curiously watching to what ende her behauiours would come. 1595 W. Hubbocke Apol. Infants Unbapt. 14 The ground and foundation is weeake: their building also vpon it, pauncheth. |