"belly up to the bar" meaning in English

See belly up to the bar in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: bellies up to the bar [present, singular, third-person], bellying up to the bar [participle, present], bellied up to the bar [participle, past], bellied up to the bar [past]
Etymology: The origin of the phrase "belly up to the bar" can be traced back as early as the 1920s, when it was present in stories like The Wails and Tales of a Tropical Tramp by Cecil Villiers. Head templates: {{en-verb|*|head=belly up to the bar}} belly up to the bar (third-person singular simple present bellies up to the bar, present participle bellying up to the bar, simple past and past participle bellied up to the bar)
  1. (chiefly US, idiomatic) To commit oneself to a challenge or task; to accept a responsibility; to acknowledge a fact. Tags: US, idiomatic Synonyms: face the music, knuckle down, man up, pull up one's socks, roll up one's sleeves Related terms: pull up a chair
    Sense id: en-belly_up_to_the_bar-en-verb-v0WM4TNa Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for belly up to the bar meaning in English (3.1kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "The origin of the phrase \"belly up to the bar\" can be traced back as early as the 1920s, when it was present in stories like The Wails and Tales of a Tropical Tramp by Cecil Villiers.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bellies up to the bar",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bellying up to the bar",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bellied up to the bar",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bellied up to the bar",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "belly up to the bar"
      },
      "expansion": "belly up to the bar (third-person singular simple present bellies up to the bar, present participle bellying up to the bar, simple past and past participle bellied up to the bar)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991 June 2, “If Delta's Going To Make A Move, 'It's Now Or Never'”, in Businessweek, retrieved 2015-04-05",
          "text": "Allen declines to discuss acquisition plans. . . . Nonetheless, W. Whitley Hawkins, whom Allen recently promoted to president from executive vice-president for marketing, asks the question out loud: \"Are we going to belly up to the bar? All Pan Am assets for sale have some appeal to us.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 March 4, Rebecca Leung, “CIA Flying Suspects to Torture?”, in CBS News, retrieved 2015-03-25",
          "text": "\"[T]he congressional committees aren't gonna belly up to the bar and say, 'We authorized this,'\" says Scheuer.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 April 25, Mark Leibovich, “Black Leader in the House Sharply Criticizes Bill Clinton”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-04-05",
          "text": "“When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar,” Mr. Clyburn said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 December 14, Deirdre Shesgreen, “Boehner, McConnell face big to-do list in next Congress”, in USA Today, retrieved 2015-03-25",
          "text": "\"They're going to have to belly up to the bar and take up these difficult issues,\" said G. William Hoagland, who served as director of budget and appropriations.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To commit oneself to a challenge or task; to accept a responsibility; to acknowledge a fact."
      ],
      "id": "en-belly_up_to_the_bar-en-verb-v0WM4TNa",
      "links": [
        [
          "commit",
          "commit"
        ],
        [
          "challenge",
          "challenge"
        ],
        [
          "task",
          "task"
        ],
        [
          "accept",
          "accept"
        ],
        [
          "responsibility",
          "responsibility"
        ],
        [
          "acknowledge",
          "acknowledge"
        ],
        [
          "fact",
          "fact"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, idiomatic) To commit oneself to a challenge or task; to accept a responsibility; to acknowledge a fact."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "pull up a chair"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "face the music"
        },
        {
          "word": "knuckle down"
        },
        {
          "word": "man up"
        },
        {
          "word": "pull up one's socks"
        },
        {
          "word": "roll up one's sleeves"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "belly up to the bar"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "The origin of the phrase \"belly up to the bar\" can be traced back as early as the 1920s, when it was present in stories like The Wails and Tales of a Tropical Tramp by Cecil Villiers.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bellies up to the bar",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bellying up to the bar",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bellied up to the bar",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bellied up to the bar",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "belly up to the bar"
      },
      "expansion": "belly up to the bar (third-person singular simple present bellies up to the bar, present participle bellying up to the bar, simple past and past participle bellied up to the bar)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "pull up a chair"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991 June 2, “If Delta's Going To Make A Move, 'It's Now Or Never'”, in Businessweek, retrieved 2015-04-05",
          "text": "Allen declines to discuss acquisition plans. . . . Nonetheless, W. Whitley Hawkins, whom Allen recently promoted to president from executive vice-president for marketing, asks the question out loud: \"Are we going to belly up to the bar? All Pan Am assets for sale have some appeal to us.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005 March 4, Rebecca Leung, “CIA Flying Suspects to Torture?”, in CBS News, retrieved 2015-03-25",
          "text": "\"[T]he congressional committees aren't gonna belly up to the bar and say, 'We authorized this,'\" says Scheuer.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 April 25, Mark Leibovich, “Black Leader in the House Sharply Criticizes Bill Clinton”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-04-05",
          "text": "“When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar,” Mr. Clyburn said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 December 14, Deirdre Shesgreen, “Boehner, McConnell face big to-do list in next Congress”, in USA Today, retrieved 2015-03-25",
          "text": "\"They're going to have to belly up to the bar and take up these difficult issues,\" said G. William Hoagland, who served as director of budget and appropriations.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To commit oneself to a challenge or task; to accept a responsibility; to acknowledge a fact."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "commit",
          "commit"
        ],
        [
          "challenge",
          "challenge"
        ],
        [
          "task",
          "task"
        ],
        [
          "accept",
          "accept"
        ],
        [
          "responsibility",
          "responsibility"
        ],
        [
          "acknowledge",
          "acknowledge"
        ],
        [
          "fact",
          "fact"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, idiomatic) To commit oneself to a challenge or task; to accept a responsibility; to acknowledge a fact."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "face the music"
    },
    {
      "word": "knuckle down"
    },
    {
      "word": "man up"
    },
    {
      "word": "pull up one's socks"
    },
    {
      "word": "roll up one's sleeves"
    }
  ],
  "word": "belly up to the bar"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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