Meanings
plural midriffs
- anatomyThe middle section of the human torso, from below the chest to above the waist; the abdomen and its back part.
Near-synonym: midsection
2 more examples
I stuck it out for about an hour and then, apprised by a hollow feeling in the midriff that the dinner hour was approaching, laid a course for home.
1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XXI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLCBut by Season 3, she said her patience had fizzled like bad Champagne after Emily grossly mispronounced “bien sûr” (“of course!”), flashed her midriff at the office and mistook George Sand, the French romantic writer, as a man.
2023 January 20, Dan Bilefsky, “American Expatriates in Paris Wish Emily Cooper Would Go Home”, in The New York Times, →ISSNSynonyms: midsection
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe middle section of the human torso, from below the chest to above the waist; the abdomen and its back part.
More synonyms by meaning
noun(anatomy) a muscular partition separating the abdominal and thoracic cavities; functions in respiration
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-West Germanic*middjahrif
- Old Englishmidrif
- Middle Englishmidref
- Englishmidriff
From Middle English midref, mydrif, from Old English midrif, midhrif (“the midriff; diaphragm”), from Proto-West Germanic *middjahrif. Equivalent to mid- + riff.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian талия
- талия (talija)mid section of the human torso
Chinese Mandarin 腹部, 肚子
- 腹部 (fùbù)mid section of the human torso
- 肚子 (dùzi)mid section of the human torso
Czech břicho, bříško
- břichomid section of the human torso
- bříškomid section of the human torso
Dutch middenrif
- middenrifmid section of the human torso
Finnish keskivartalo
- keskivartalomid section of the human torso
French ventre
- ventremid section of the human torso
German Bauch, Taille
- Bauchmid section of the human torso
- Taillemid section of the human torso
Italian vita
- vitamid section of the human torso
Latin praecordia
- praecordiamid section of the human torso
Persian میانتنه
- میانتنه (miyāntane)mid section of the human torso
Polish brzuch
- brzuchmid section of the human torso
Portuguese ventre
- ventremid section of the human torso
Spanish abdomen, vientre
- abdomenmid section of the human torso
- vientremid section of the human torso
- cinturamid section of the human torso
Cite this entry
midriff. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/midriff
“midriff.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/midriff. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “midriff,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/midriff.
Source: midriff on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.