[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To cause to swell out.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. ii. 74. Your breath with full consent bellied his sailes.
1790. Coleridge, Happiness, Poems I. 33. Fortune’s gale Shall belly out each prosperous sail.
1848. Lowell, Biglow P., Poet. Wks. (1879), 179/1. But could see the fair west wind belly the homeward sail.
2. intr. To bulge out, swell out.
1624. Sanderson, 12 Serm. (1637), 172. The Morter getting wet dissolveth, and the wals belly-out.
1718. Pope, Iliad, I. 626. The milk white canvass bellying as they [the gales] blow.
1775. M. Guthrie, in G. Colman, Posth. Lett. (1820), 119. An earthen pot that Bellys towards the top.
1883. Spurgeon, in Chr. Her., 277/1. Her white sails bellying to the wind.
† 3. intr. To become corpulent or stout. Obs.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (1856), 73. Your hogges will beginne to belly againe.
1679. Shadwell, True Widow, I. Wks. 1720, III. 120. I begin to belly, I think, very much.
1772. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 381. We … flatter ourselves that, while we creep on the ground, we belly into melons.
