bellyload

plural bellyloads · alternative belly-load

1. colloquialThe amount that will fit in one's belly.

   I was sick; I vomited a bellyload into the gutter.

   1966, Anthony Burgess, chapter 1, in Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel, New York: Norton, page 51

   1 more example

   “I done cooked most of this yer grub,” whined he of the razor, “an’ I’se gwine t’eat my belly-load.”

   1895, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne, chapter 18, in Honor of Thieves, New York: R.F. Fenno, published 1899, page 204

2. colloquialThe amount or number that will fit inside an aircraft.

   The plane was in labor carrying a belly-load of bombs.

   1980, Samuel Fuller, chapter 23, in The Big Red One, New York: Bantam, page 79

   2 more examples

   […] there on the plane, a belly-load of decent people soaring above serene tooth-drawn Windsor Castle, home of the emblem of so much savagery […]

   1992, Melvyn Bragg, chapter 22, in Crystal Rooms, London: Hodder & Stoughton, published 1993, page 289

   You were lifted out of your lives, disgorged in bellyloads by planes that lumbered in looking too heavy to fly.

   1998, Helen Dunmore, chapter 10, in Your Blue-Eyed Boy, Boston: Little Brown, page 103

3. colloquialA large amount or number (of something).

   She caused a bellyload of trouble […]

   1993, Joan Lingard, chapter 4, in After Colette, London: Sinclair-Stevenson, page 85

   1 more example

   […] you don’t make a bellyload of excuses for why you haven’t written more, better, faster, or funnier.

   1999, Gary Garrison, The Playwright’s Survival Guide, Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, Part 1, p. 24