bay window
1
8.9
- noun
- /beɪ ˈwɪndoʊ/
- Archaic
:
panza
- He has a noticeable bay window that makes his shirts fit awkwardly.
Examples
-
My uncle joked about his bay window after the holidays.
-
The old man's bay window made it hard for him to button his coat.
-
After years of enjoying good food, he developed quite a bay window.
-
After the holidays, she developed a bit of a bay window.
-
He always joked about his growing bay window after indulging in too many desserts.
-
As he relaxed on the couch, his bay window pressed against his shirt, making it difficult to breathe.
-
The comedian's routine included hilarious stories about his bay window and the challenges it brought.
Synonyms
106
4.0
The stomach or belly, often the round front part of the body where food goes after you eat
23
8.4
A large round stomach often caused by weight gain
4
9.9
An informal word for a large, round belly that sticks out
3
3.4
A round stomach that sticks out because of extra fat
Surface Forms
Morphology
bay + window
The slang sense maps a familiar architectural image (a bay window — a windowed projection from a wall) onto the body to describe a protruding belly, so the meaning is motivated by a visible shape analogy. However, the inference depends on knowing the literal architectural term and making a metaphorical extension, which is not automatic for all B1 learners, especially since this is slang and culturally specific.
Etymology
Bay window: The slang bay window may come from the image of a belly that 'sticks out' like a small window on the front of the body. So people use it to mean 'a large, protruding belly'.