subs. phr. (once in serious use).—Food; provisions of all kinds. [Like many words of this class (e.g.) BACK-TIMBER, (q.v.), once literary, but now a thorough-going vulgarism, only surviving dialectically, and as slang].
1607. G. WILKINS, The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, iii. [DODSLEY, Old Plays (HAZLITT), ix. 519]. We had some BELLY TIMBER at your table.
1614. Terence in English, Annona cara est. Corne is at a high price; victuals are deare; BELLY-TIMBER is hard to come by.
1625. PURCHAS, Pilgrims, ii. They make Florentines and verie good BELLY-TIMBER.
1637. MASSINGER, The Guardian, iii. 3. Ador. Haste you unto my villa, and take all provisions along with you … Car. Trust me for BELLY-TIMBER.
1663–78. BUTLER, Hudibras.
| Through deserts vast, | |
| And regions desolate they pass’d, | |
| Where BELLY-TIMBER, above ground | |
| Or under, was not to be found. |
1670. COTTON, Virgil Travestie, 29.
| Lay thinking now his guts grew limber, | |
| How they might get more BELLY-TIMBER. |
1706. WARD, The Wooden World Dissected, 54. A cross-grain’d Wind, when at Sea, that runs him out in his Cargo of BELLY-TIMBER.
1717. PRIOR, Alma, iii.
| The strength of every other member | |
| Is founded on your BELLY-TIMBER. |
1719. Poor Robin’s Almanack, Feb. On the 10th day of this month, being Shrove-Tuesday, is like to be a great innundation of BELLY-TIMBER.
1749. SMOLLETT, Gil Blas (1812) II. vi. I don’t trouble myself with useless baggage; but … fill my knap-sack with BELLY-TIMBER, my razors, and a wash-ball.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 183.
| They have their uses, let me tell ye, | |
| When TIMBER’S wanting for the BELLY. |
1820. SCOTT, The Monastery, xv. I hope, a’gad, they have not forgotten my trunk-mails of apparel amid the ample provision they made for their own BELLY-TIMBER.
