belly up

• belly-up

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belly up (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Dead or defunct.

   After several financial failures, the organization went belly up.

• Often used with go, went, or turn.

• go belly-up
• tits up

belly up (third-person singular simple present bellies up, present participle bellying up, simple past and past participle bellied up)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To gather close, or approach eagerly or assertively, as a bar for ordering alcoholic drinks.

   He bellied up to the bar as soon as he saw a free stool.

   • 1926, Cecil Villiers, “Don Juan and the Plaza-Miners”, in The Wails and Tales of a Tropical Tramp, Iquitos: Imp. «La hormiga» […], →OCLC, page 99:

     Belly-up to the bar boys and have a drink with me, […]

2. (intransitive) To die; to fail or go out of business.
3. (intransitive, of a dog) To lay on the back with its belly up.

• belly up to the bar