Obs. exc. dial. [f. BELLY sb. + TIMBER.] Food, provisions. (Formerly in serious use, as still in dialects (cf. TIMBER); but since the time of Butler tending to be ludicrous.)
1607. Mis. Enforced Marr., III. in Hazl., Dodsl., IX. 519. We had some belly timber at your table.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrims, II. 1643. They make Florentines, and verie good belly-timber.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. I. 331. Belly-Timber above Ground Or under was not to be found.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (1784), 63/2. Here is no solid belly-timber in this country.
[1820. Scott, Monast. (1830), I. 222. The ample provision they have made for their own belly-timber.]
1855. Whitby Gloss., Belly-timber, food.
