bellyache v.
to complain, to moan.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Derby Mercury 29 Sept. 2/6: They only asked him what he was ‘bellyaching’ for. | |
 | Address of the state irrigation committee to the Fresno and Riverside irrigation conventions 140: [He] is up at Sacramento ‘bellyaching’ against the irrigation bills. The burden of his song is that the laws proposed don't fit his case. | |
| Indians of Canada n.p.: Money is ‘Otter skins,’ ‘velvet,’ and ‘dust,’ and when the gambler is fortunate, he is ‘away up in the red.’ The grumbler is ‘belly aching,’ when half drunk he is ‘feeling lucky’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Durham Dly Globe (NC) 2 Aug. 2/3: He is not doing his sworn duty when he allows Black to be bellyaching around as a total wreck and pays him to bellyache. | |
| Powers That Prey 183: You’ve been belly-aching around these joints for the last two months, an’ I’m gettin’ tired o’ lookin’ at you. | |
| ‘West Point Sl.’ in Howitzer (US Milit. Academy) 292–5: B-ache – An explanation for a skin; also to work the voice overtime. | |
| ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 571: belly-ache around, v. phr. To maintain a pessimistic attitude toward anything or things in general. ‘If he quit belly-aching around and work when he had a chance, he could pay off his mortgage.’. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 20 Jan. 38/6: Bellyache — to complain. | |
| Three Soldiers 45: You belly-achin’ again? | |
| Tell England (1965) 280: There’s nothing to bellyache about. | |
| Flirt and Flapper 83: Flapper: He began belly-aching at once. | |
| letter 17 Dec. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 427: Wish you were here to bellyache to. | |
| Wayward Bus 111: He blew his top and lost his job and came bellyaching to Loraine. | |
| Leamington Spa Courier 24 Oct. 7/2: I consider [it] a good investment and am not going bellyaching to someone else. | |
| 3 June diary in Garfield Our Hidden Lives (2004) 405: The locals are bellyaching as usual. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Jimmy Brockett 196: He has been bloody well wheezing and belly-aching in my ear. | |
| Big Gold Dream 91: Reverend Tree, who is always bellyaching about us living in sin up here in Harlem. | |
| Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 140: Hell, you know me. I’m just an optimist who bellyaches all the time. | |
| ‘Dillon Explained That He Was Frightened’ in N. Amer. Rev. Fall(1973) 43/1: All they can do is stand there and bellyache Gospel at you. | |
| Ten Times Table I i: They’re all the same. Since time immemorial. Spend their lives belly-aching and complaining. | |
| ‘The Open Book’ in Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 113: And brother to brother they bullshit each other, / and just bellyache by the hour. | |
| Official and Doubtful 190: Five minutes chat about Celtic’s chances [...] another five bellyaching about those clowns on the executive. | |
| Guardian G2 23 Feb. 5: Frank Dobson was belly-aching even after his victory. | |
| ‘Six Feet Under God’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 187: [I]t was time to stop bellyaching. |
In derivatives
a whinger, a whiner.
| Wichita Dly Eagle 29 Nov. 6/2: To put an easy quietus upon his further complaints, let us say to this dear old belly-acher [etc.]. | |
| People’s Voice (Wellington, KS) 14 Apr. 4/2: It’s a cold day when the professional calamity belly-acher cannot find something to make himself miserable over. | |
| ‘West Point Sl.’ in Howitzer (US Milit. Academy) 292–5: B-acher – One who b-aches. | |
| Ashland Tidings (OR) 27 Jan. 2/3: There is a guy whose name is The Hellydid [...] and he comes from the River of Doubt [...] He is the original quacker — the original belly-acher. | |
| Portsmouth Eve. News 8 Dec. 8/5: People for the towns are not wanted [in Australia]. Another class not wanted is the ‘perpetual belly-acher’. | |
| Conquering Our Great Amer. Plains 221: These voluble doubters are commonly called old croakers, backbiters, ‘bellyachers.’. | |
| Prison Nurse (1964) 114: You bellyachers gripe me. | |
| Kingsblood Royal (2001) 205: On the field of honor, those bellyachers can’t take it. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 60: Where among the modern belly-achers was there a writer to teach him. | |
| Stand (1990) 325: They’re your whimperers and whiners and belly-achers. | |
| Spike Island (1981) 355: There are the big-time fellas you admire for not being cryin’, cringin’, screamin’ belly-achers. | |
| (con. 1900) Road to Nab End (2003) 104: Bellyachers were silenced. | |
| Tattoo of a Naked Lady 73: If I know anything about Bible-thumping bellyachers [etc.]. |
complaining, whingeing; also as adj.
| Bismark Wkly Trib. (ND) 4 Oct. 2/3: He won his case, and should let the other fellow do the bellyaching. | |
| (con. 1920s) Elmer Gantry 404: So Frank, the belly-aching highbrow, has got as rich a man as Styles in his fold. | |
| ‘Big Blonde’ in Penguin Dorothy Parker (1982) 204: What’s the idea of all the bellyaching? | |
| ‘Guns of the Mountains’ in Action Stories May–June 🌐 I’ve endured Uncle Garfield’s belly-achin’ all I aim to. | |
| ‘Every Opportunity’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 250: Don’t start that bellyaching. You had every opportunity. | |
| On Broadway 23 Oct. [synd. col.] ‘Those High Grey Walls,’ a natural title for a bellyaching ballad. | |
| Lady with the Limp 189: Standish diverted this spasm of belly-aching by asking [etc.]. | |
| Waiters 99: You didn’t hear no bellyachin’ outa him when you hada walkout coupla weeks ago. | |
| ‘Neither Your Jenny nor Mine’ in Love Ain’t Nothing but Sex Misspelled 73: I’ve had to listen to your miserable bellyaching and whining and complaining for the last week. | |
| Great Santini (1977) 65: Bellyaching will end as of 0859 hours. | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 487: Well then, I don’t know what all this goddamned bellyaching is. | |
| Holden’s Performance (1989) 332: There’d only be his smoker’s cough between his steady belly-aching to Rust. |