Brewer's: Belly

The belly and its members. The fable of Menenius Agrippa to the Roman people when they seceded to the Sacred Mount: “Once on a time the members refused to work for the lazy belly; but, as the supply of food was thus stopped, they found there was a necessary and mutual dependence between them.” Shakespeare introduces the fable in his Coriolanus, i. 1.

“And now, Dame Peveril, to dinner, to dinner. The old fox must have his belly-timber, though the hounds have been after him the whole day.” —SirW.Scott. Peveril of the Peak, chap. 48.

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