BELLYING Synonyms: 53 Similar and Opposite Words

bellying

verb

present participle of belly

as in protruding

to extend outward beyond a usual point the sails slowly bellied as the wind picked up

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in creeping

to move slowly with the body close to the ground recruits were forced to belly over the obstacle course under simulated enemy fire

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for bellying

Verb

Once fished to the brink of extinction globally, sand tiger sharks, that iconic aquarium shark with a jaw of protruding, jagged teeth that only a mother could love, have been increasing in the Boston Harbor over the last decade.

— Asia London Palomba, Christian Science Monitor, 20 Oct. 2026
The face is a glossy black plastic with the exterior lenses slightly protruding, keeping the front from looking like a single flat surface.

— Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of protruding

Verb

Gusts of more than 60 mph are possible in parts of the Outer Banks with 40 to 50 mph gusts creeping toward the Interstate 95 corridor in North Carolina and southern Virginia.

— Mary Gilbert, CNN Money, 17 Oct. 2026
Graduate unemployment is at 23 percent, white-collar job growth has slowed to a creeping one percent this year, and nearly a quarter of Indians between the ages of 15 and 29 are not in employment, education, or training programs.

— Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Foreign Affairs, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of creeping

Verb

My physical study, on the floor, poking at what was there in the open field of the air, led to newfound levels of learning to process, in poems on the page, where my initial feelings of hunger came from.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2026
In a recent interview with OutKick Dropkick, Hefner was already poking the bear in hopes of getting eyes on his event.

— Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of poking

Verb

Leeds is in the zone here, and because most of the tracks are about the same length and there are no ambient interludes or pop-length counterbalances, the album’s lengthy runtime ends up sliding by pretty easily.

— Daniel Bromfield, Pitchfork, 27 Oct. 2026
Prosecutors said authorities responded to a report of a shattered sliding glass door and significant fire damage inside the home.

— Rosalio Ahumada, Sacbee.com, 27 Oct. 2026

Definition of sliding

Verb

Earlier in the week, the team said the 23-year-old NFL player had been dealing with a bulging disc in his back.

— Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 25 Oct. 2026
The fear of effeminization has never felt so acute, which presumably is why Matt Damon’s Odysseus needed bulging muscles, to ensure his sensitivity was mitigated by pecs of steel.

— Jay Weissberg, Variety, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of bulging

Verb

Longtime collaborator Erik Blood foregrounds Butler’s dry drum machines in the mix, letting every other element shuffle around them, snaking toward the spotlight for a brief moment and retreating back into the brume.

— Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 23 Oct. 2026
Arthur Russell — Hall’s primary musical collaborator and the artist most associated with his own work — lived on the top floor, a cord of bootleg electricity snaking up from Ginsberg’s window to his apartment.

— Jack Denton, Vulture, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of snaking

Verb

Prior to then, traffic was seen crawling on the eastbound side of the bridge heading into the city.

— Jeff Capellini, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
At the hospital, an insect fell from the girl’s shoe, and a staffer saw a cockroach crawling on her, the district attorney’s office said.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of crawling

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

bellyfuls

bellying

bellying up

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“Bellying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bellying. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of bellying

verb

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