belt
/bɛlt
/noun
1A strip of leather or other material worn, typically round the waist, to support or hold in clothes or to carry weapons: he tightened his leather belt an extra notch a sword belt [as modifier]: a belt buckle...
- His jerkin was decorated by a flamboyant lace frill around the neck, and like Tudor he carried a sword attached to a belt round his waist.
- He wore long black pants and a dark green shirt with a leather belt around his waist.
- He buckled his sword belt around his waist, and then he picked her up.
Synonyms
girdle, sash, strap, cummerbund, waistband, band, girth;
Japanese obi
archaic zone
rare baldric, cincture, ceinture, cestus, cingulum
1.1 short for seat belt.Fasten your three-point seatbelts in the Exige and the four-point belts in the Cup 240 and look in the mirrors....
- Seatbelt retractors used to just roll up the belt when you weren't using it and control the slack when you were.
- In that case, it's very likely that a test conducted with our supplemental belt would have a far superior crash star rating.
1.2A belt worn as a sign of rank or achievement: he was awarded the victor’s belt...
- They often wear colourful clothing and belts to distinguish which rank they are in the Chiui hierarchy.
- Around 1930 Jigoro Kano created a new belt to recognize the special achievements of high ranking black belts.
- In the Junior Taekwondo, Matthew Archer achieved his blue belt with a fantastic score of 94 per cent.
1.3A belt of a specified colour, marking the attainment of a particular level in judo, karate, or similar sports: [as modifier]: brown-belt level...
- Janine beat more experienced rivals to win the senior traditional Kata coloured belt section at the Yorkshire Karate Championships in Morley.
- He also has an orange belt in judo and regularly goes hill walking.
- They had no way to defend themselves, but at least Sasaki had a high belt in karate.
1.4A person who is qualified to wear a belt of a specified colour in judo, karate, etc. Shaun became a brown belt in judo...
- No wonder then that the other three international belts didn't rank him inside their top 15 places.
- She was a low level karate belt who often missed class.
- Giving evidence, the defendant, a judo blue belt, had told the court he had been babysitting for friends and when they returned, he went to his house for some beer.
1.5 (the belt) The punishment of being struck with a belt: be quiet, or it’s the belt...
- Today our psychologist will tell you how damaging it is to the child's self esteem to be punished by belt.
- Skyler did as he was told but grew scared when he saw his father remove his belt; he had never been punished by belt before.
- My handwriting was terrible and every English period without fail my teacher in my first year gave me the 'belt' until my writing improved.
2A continuous band of material used in machinery for transferring motion from one wheel to another: a great wheel driven by a leather belt...
- Unlike machinery used in textile mills, steelmaking machinery had few spinning belts that could pull workers into drive shafts.
- Traditionally these machines have belts and pulleys to change increment speeds, which wouldn't change so often.
- Most of the belts are off the machines, or on idler wheels, so that when the mill is running only the machine being used is operating.
Synonyms
band, loop, hoop, thong;
drive belt, fan belt, conveyor belt
2.1A conveyor belt.But downstairs, where checked luggage is scanned, only the conveyer belt had power....
- The all headed to the conveyer belt and Kari grabbed her bags.
- The company recently changed its production line operations with the installation of new conveyer belts, which resulted in the standing requirement.
2.2A flexible strip carrying machine-gun cartridges.Others are draped in belts of machine gun bullets, or carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers over their shoulders....
- It is said the .50 calibre machine gun ammunition belts in Supermarine Spitfires measured exactly 27 feet.
- Nearby the belts of machine gun bullets are hung up like strings of onions.
3A strip or encircling area that is different in nature or composition from its surroundings: the asteroid belt a belt of trees...
- Because they were formed in two very different areas, the planetesimals in the two belts have different compositions.
- The country has four distinct geographical areas: the coastal belt, the forested region, the savannah zone, and the sandy zone.
- The Scottish electricity network is strong in the central belt but in areas such as the Galloway hills, and the north west the same can't be said.
Synonyms
region, area, district, zone, sector, province, quarter, pocket, enclave, territory, neighbourhood, locality;
tract, stretch, extent
informal neck of the woods, parts
British informal patch
4 informal A heavy blow: she administered a good belt with her stick...
- I agree, back then, even when I was a kid, it was seen as the norm to discipline children with a smack or a belt with a stick, but yet they didn't grow up to be muggers or binge drinking fighters.
- Out of the clear blue he landed a belt on them and I never felt such pain.
- I quickly put a smile on my face before he gave me a belt.
Synonyms
blow, punch, smack, crack, slap, bang, thump, knock, rap, thwack, box
informal clout, clip, clobber, bash, biff, whack, wallop, sock, swipe, lam, whomp
British informal slosh
North American informal boff, bust, slug, whale
Australian/New Zealand informal dong
dated buffet
verb
1 [with object and adverbial] Fasten with a belt: she belted her raincoat firmly...
- He belted his jacket with a gold girdle.
- She belted her drab-coloured trench coat firmly around hershe would need its strong, deep pockets to carry any stones she did findand slipped quietly onto the landing.
- "Ready?" he asked as she belted her coat.
Synonyms
fasten, tie, bind;
encircle, gird, encompass, circle
1.1 [no object, with adverbial] Be fastened with a belt: the jacket belts at the waist...
- Simple clothing - loose black trousers and a dark grey jacket, belted at the waist.
- She was wearing only dark green breeches, belted around her waist and fastened just above the knees by gold clasps.
- He was wearing a white shirt, brown woollen trousers, a navy woollen jacket belted with a black belt and the cloak the soldier had mentioned.
1.2 [with object] Secure or attach with a belt: he was securely belted into the passenger seat...
- The ambulance drove to the hospital slowly as a safety measure because Mr A could not be belted and was not secure in the ambulance.
- She threw a worn leather book-bag into the passenger seat and belted herself in.
- After a struggle the man, who is 6ft 4in tall, was belted into his seat.
2 [with object] Beat or strike (someone), especially with a belt as a punishment: I was belted and sent to my room...
- He tried to slug her, but Al belted him the groin, a convenient target from where he was seated.
- On Friday night TV3 late news played the footage of that guy belting him at least three times.
- In the middle of another hour long mocking taunt of his dad for how much better this war was going, his mother belted him with a cheese grater.
Synonyms
hit, strike, smack, slap, bang, beat, punch, thump, welt
informal clout, bash, biff, whack, thwack, wallop, sock, slog, clobber, bop, lam, larrup
North American informal boff, bust, slug, whale
archaic smite
2.1Hit (something) hard: he belted the ball downfield...
- Dean belted the ball downfield and over the Edinburgh line.
- Ricardo ran forward and belted the ball low past David James.
- And it's also safer than having five-year-olds belting tennis balls around the room.
3 [no object, with adverbial of direction] informal Rush or dash in a specified direction: he belted out of the side door...
- Should a hammerhead or whitetip come belting along expecting a tasty snack, I was not anxious to be swept away by its enthusiasm.
- The girls belted into the wind as they sped along a country road, security close in tow, in Laurel's graduation present, a jet-black, convertible Viper with all the trimmings.
- ‘Great’ He said belting out the room and I heard him dash down the stairs.
3.1(Of rain) fall hard: the rain belted down on the tin roof...
- The horse lay there, thrashing violently, the Cowgirl, unconscious, the rains still belting on them, the funnel taking down everything in its path to their right.
- From the re-start the rain started belting down, effectively killing off any enterprising backline play and the Bulldogs pack were left to slog it out in the trenches.
- The steady rain was not doing the pitch too much harm but just a couple of hours before kick-off it absolutely belted down.
Phrases
below the belt
belt and braces
tighten one's belt
under one's belt
Phrasal verbs
belt something out
belt up
Origin
Old English, of Germanic origin, from Latin balteus 'girdle'.
An Old English word that can be traced back to Latin balteus, ‘girdle’. It is unlawful for a boxer to land a punch below his opponent's belt, and people often use the phrase below the belt about a critical or unkind remark. Margot Asquith (1864–1945), wife of the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith (1852–1928), once remarked of another Liberal prime minister, Lloyd George (1863–1945): ‘He can't see a belt without hitting below it’. If you take a belt and braces approach to something you make doubly sure that nothing will go wrong. The reference is to someone so anxious that their trousers will fall down that they wear both. Belting or hitting someone with a belt, is behind the verb sense ‘to strike, hit’, and probably also the meaning ‘to move very fast’. Belt up, or ‘be quiet’, seems to have started life as RAF slang, in the 1930s.