第362期:belly-up 三个跟肚子有关的词

英语中有很多跟身体器官有关的词,今天我们来讲三个常见跟肚子有关的词。

1. belly-up

字面意思是“肚子朝上”。这个词有好几个意思,我们今天只讲两个最简单的意思:破产和喝醉。

例句:

Oh, that idea went belly up when the CEO criticized it. 哦,那个提议被CEO批评了,失败了。

英语释义是:When a business goes belly-up, it’s bankrupt. When you’re belly-up, you’re out of business.

例如:The company is belly-up. 那家公司破产了。(这时候belly-up跟bankrupt是同义词)

养过鱼的人不难猜出这个意思的来源,就是取了鱼死时肚子翻过来朝上的现象。这个意思很形象。

If you’ve ever had a goldfish, you probably noticed how it looked when
it died: belly-up. The same term can be used for financial failures,
like a store that goes out of business due to poor sales or a company
that makes bad investments and has to fold. People use the term for
other sorts of failures too: a sports team that misses the playoffs has
gone belly-up. A failed dream has gone belly-up. Anything belly-up is
finished.

Belly-up的第二个常用意思是“喝醉了”。

例句:

Do you remember last night at the bar at all? You were really belly up! 你还记得昨晚在酒吧的事吗?你是真的喝多了!

这时候belly-up跟drunk是同义词。

2. beer belly 啤酒肚

这个不用解释,跟中文完全对应。

3. bellyache 抱怨

这个也很常见,belly加上ache(疼)可以表示真的肚子疼(通常说stomachache),更常见的是表示complain 抱怨。

例句:

Stop bellyaching and just get on with the job. 别抱怨了,开始干活吧。

*注意bellyache这个词一般是belly和ache连在一起作为一个单词的,分开的写法很少见。