Meaning & use
yellow belly
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountableinformalold-fashioneddisapproving
A person who lacks the courage to face danger or a challenge.
Grammar: Used for a person, often as an insult: don't be a yellow belly.
Patterns
- be a yellow belly
- call someone a yellow belly
The older boys called him a yellow belly for refusing to jump off the bridge.
In the western film, the sheriff won't accept being called a yellow belly.
Nobody wants to be the yellow belly who backs out at the last minute.
nouncountableAustralianinformal
A fish with a yellow underside, especially the golden perch of Australian rivers.
Grammar: Often written as one word, yellowbelly, when it names this fish.
Patterns
- catch a yellow belly
He caught a large yellow belly in the river before breakfast.
Anglers travel to the inland lake hoping for a yellow belly.
The restaurant served grilled yellow belly with lemon.
Word forms
| plural | yellow bellies |
|---|
Common combinations
- call someone a yellow belly
- They called me a yellow belly because I wouldn't dive.
- a bunch of yellow bellies
- The captain muttered that the crew were a bunch of yellow bellies.
- yellow-bellied coward
- He was branded a yellow-bellied coward by the newspaper.
- act like a yellow belly
- Don't act like a yellow belly; just tell the truth.
- no yellow belly
- My grandfather was no yellow belly and fought in two wars.
Synonyms and how they differ
- coward
- Coward is the standard word with no humor, whereas yellow belly is slangy and sounds like a playground or western-film insult.
- chicken
- Chicken is a casual word for someone too scared to do something, and it is milder and more current than yellow belly.
- scaredy-cat
- Scaredy-cat is childish and teasing, aimed at someone fearful of small things, whereas yellow belly sounds harsher.
- craven
- Craven is a formal or literary adjective and noun for shameful cowardice, much weightier than yellow belly.
Opposites
Word family
- yellow-bellied adjective
- cowardly
- yellow adjective
- cowardly (informal, as in he turned yellow)
- yellowbelly noun
- one-word spelling, also the name of a fish in Australia
Practice
Which sentence uses 'yellow belly' to mean a coward?
Choose one answer.
Only the second sentence uses yellow belly as an insult for someone lacking courage. The first uses the fish sense, and the others are about color or furniture.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “yellow belly”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.