Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The belly, especially a protruding one; a potbelly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To pierce or rip the belly of; stick or stab in the belly; eviscerate.
- To fill the paunch of; stuff with food.
- noun The belly; the abdomen.
- noun Specifically, in zoology, the rumen. See cut under
ruminant . - noun Nautical
- noun Same as
paunce , 2.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Anat.) The belly and its contents; the abdomen; also, the first stomach, or rumen, of ruminants. See
rumen . - noun (Naut.) A paunch mat; -- called also
panch . - noun The thickened rim of a bell, struck by the clapper.
- noun A noticeably protruding belly; a potbelly.
- noun (Naut.) a thick mat made of strands of rope, used to prevent the yard or rigging from chafing.
- transitive verb To pierce or rip the belly of; to eviscerate; to disembowel.
- transitive verb obsolete To stuff with food.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The first stomach of a
ruminant , therumen . - noun The
abdomen orbelly of a human or animal, especially a large,protruding one. - noun nautical A paunch mat.
- verb To remove the internal organs of a
ruminant , such as ahare orrabbit prior to eating.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a protruding abdomen
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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To quote the foreword in one of Luther's books, "his gorged paunch is puffed up with uncivil pride."
Janey Canuck in the West Emily Ferguson 1910
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When the paunch is to be punctured, the animal must be stabbed with a knife (a penknife will do) midway between the haunch-bone and the last rib of the left side; and the opening should be prevented from closing, by the introduction of a tin tube or something of that kind, till the gases are dispelled.
The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845
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And for a long time, I made the excuse that having a paunch was a sign of success, and, you know, I live a high life in the literary world; we all do.
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The almost universal respect inspired by a beard or a paunch is a poor tribute to human discernment.
With Steyn and De Wet Philip Pienaar
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It has already been shown by the illustration, (p. 4,) that the paunch is the largest of the four cavities; but this is not the case with the stomach of the young calf, which, while it continues to suck, does not ruminate; in this case the _reed_, which is the true digestive cavity, is actually larger than the other three taken together.
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His chin and his paunch were his most telling points.
Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook Ebenezer Cobham Brewer 1853
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EPA's North East manager Ann Telford said the large stockpiles of odorous waste material had been identified as paunch - the contents of an animal's stomach, and sludge generated from the rendering process.
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For men, this comes in the shape of a 'paunch' and for women this is described as being 'apple shaped' rather than 'pear shaped'.
Archive 2008-09-01 FIDO The Dog 2008
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a second time; and the process is thus accomplished: they have four stomachs, the first is called the paunch, and is the largest of all; into it descend the grass, herbs, and leaves, when first cropped and imperfectly masticated.
Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals R. Lee 1865
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Bojador, the "paunch" or "bulging Cape," 180 miles beyond Cape Non, had been, since the days of the Laurentian Portulano (1351), and the Catalan and Portuguese voyages of 1341 and 1346, the southmost point of
Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery, 1394-1460 A.D. With an Account of Geographical Progress Throughout the Middle Ages As the Preparation for His Work. C. Raymond Beazley 1911
sonofgroucho commented on the word paunch
Not that I have one, of course....
April 14, 2007