paunch
/pɔːn(t)ʃ
/noun
1A large or protruding belly: his body was powerful and square, with the beginnings of a paunch...
- Within a month, you are guaranteed a paunch, a pot belly, and the inability to walk up stairs.
- His appearance was quite ordinary, ordinary height, ordinary brown hair and eyes and the barest beginnings of a paunch around his middle.
- He had a slight paunch at his waistline but it was solid.
Synonyms
pot belly, fat/protruding stomach/belly/abdomen, beer belly, stomach, belly, middle, midriff, waist, waistline
informal beer gut, gut, tummy, tum, pot, breadbasket
dated, humorous corporation
2 Nautical, archaic A thick strong mat used to give protection from chafing on a mast or spar.
verb [with object]
Disembowel (an animal): one of the things I had to do was to paunch and skin a hare...
- Behind them on the grass the headless and paunched body of a sow lay where they had dropped it.
Derivatives
paunchiness
- It's another two star review over in the Times, and again his paunchiness is the main topic.
paunchy
/ adjective (paunchier, paunchiest) ...- What does she want for dating the paunchy middle-aged man?
- They are boring and paunchy and who would want them, unless they are wealthy or powerful?
- Their Italian shoes are unscuffed and their ties are always straight and they never go bald or get paunchy around the middle.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French pa(u)nche, based on Latin pantex, pantic-, usually in the plural in the sense 'intestines'.
Rhymes
- willow grouse
- willowherb
- willow pattern
- willow ptarmigan
- willow tit
- willow tree
- willow warbler
- willowware
- willow wren
- willowy
- willpower
- Wills Moody, Helen
- Wills, William John
- will the real —— please stand up
- willy
- willy-nilly
- willy wagtail
- willy-willy
- Wilmington
- Wilms' tumour
- Wilson, Charles Thomson Rees
- Wilson, Edmund
- Wilson, Edward Osborne
- Wilson, Harold
- Wilson, James