How to Use belly up in a Sentence

belly up

verb
Definition of belly upnext
  • In the streams hit by the unknown scourge, 40 to 90 percent of the salmon went belly up.
    — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Dec. 2020
  • Davey O’Brien didn’t have to belly up against the likes of Georgia.
    — Dallas News, 10 Jan. 2023
  • But the iX, the e-tron, and the Lyriq all spent just as much time bellying up to the buffet, as all three pack more than 5500 pounds.
    — Joe Lorio, Car and Driver, 5 Apr. 2023
  • When ice seals off small lakes and the stocked rainbow trout goes belly up, the blackfish guts it out.
    — Ned Rozell, Anchorage Daily News, 28 Jan. 2023
  • The entire league went belly up during the middle of the 1975 season.
    — Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al, 5 July 2022
  • There was one in the works back around 2008 and due to the economic downturn that went belly up for lack of a better term.
    — Jennifer Baker Edwards, The Enquirer, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Work it right and get a coveted spot at the small bar, or belly up to one of the tables in the taproom or the patio out back.
    — oregonlive, 29 May 2023
  • Soon Richardson was bellying up to the bar to order a tamale and posole next to a group of friends and lunch regulars.
    — Chris Kenning, USA TODAY, 19 Apr. 2023
  • Wow, Wieczner sheds light on how one of the most notable crypto hedge funds went belly up.
    — Leo Schwartz, Fortune, 2 Jan. 2023
  • Each new owner paid a $50 million expansion fee to belly up to the bar.
    — Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Dec. 2022
  • For a post-dinner classic cocktail, belly up to The Bar & Patio at Husk.
    — Megan Murphy, Travel + Leisure, 18 Jan. 2024
  • Like a salmon that has swum upstream to its destination, your work is done … Now, all that’s left is to go belly up and die.
    — Pat Myers, Washington Post, 3 Nov. 2022
  • Backing double-digit favorites in the NFL is a quick way to go belly up in this racket.
    — Michael Arinze, Chicago Tribune, 6 Nov. 2022
  • More and more, these are the kinds of scraps that bondholders are fighting over as companies go belly up.
    — Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 27 Oct. 2020
  • The club flourished for a while but eventually went belly up.
    — Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2021
  • When the rest of the Blockbuster chain goes belly up, the franchise that Timmy manages becomes the last Blockbuster in America.
    — oregonlive, 3 Nov. 2022
  • People sniffed the water coming out of their taps, checked rashes in the mirror and gazed down into creeks at the green-white shoals of fish and frogs floating belly up.
    — Emily Cochrane, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2023
  • When the institution went belly up, like so many others in the 1930s, my grandfather was livid.
    — John Gurda, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4 June 2020
  • Try to get your feet pointed downhill, belly up, flailing your arms in a backstroking motion.
    — Malia Wollan, New York Times, 18 Jan. 2022
  • Customers heard in 2022 to be frugal because the economy would inevitably go belly up any day now.
    — Erik Huberman, Rolling Stone, 15 June 2023
  • To sample a variety of grapes, belly up to the tasting bar at the eclectic Michael David Winery, which offers wine for varying tastes.
    — Rebecca Deurlein, Forbes, 2 Apr. 2023
  • Plenty of teams go belly up at crunch time or injuries derail what appeared to be near certain success.
    — Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 July 2021
  • The prosecutors’ move forced Kalkhoven’s lawyers to argue that, whatever their client’s tax returns might show, Kalkhoven was not on the verge of going belly up.
    — Paul Kiel, ProPublica, 8 Dec. 2021
  • But when the recession struck in 2008, several opera companies went belly up and singer contracts dried up.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Aug. 2021
  • If your employer goes belly up, legally the money in your 401(k) cannot be treated as the company's assets by a bankruptcy court.
    — Jeanne Sahadi, CNN, 9 June 2022
  • Unlike in an oil spill, the effects of high selenium levels do not result in large kills of fish that suddenly appear belly up in the water.
    — Jim Robbins, New York Times, 11 July 2023
  • This real-world Care Bear Stare was in full effect all night as those not participating in the entertainment portion of the evening were standing belly up to the stage cheering on their pals.
    — Staff Author, Southern Living, 20 Nov. 2023
  • Since Jenny Craig went belly up, customers have voiced their sadness and frustration on social media.
    — Sara Ruberg, NBC News, 5 July 2023
  • The rights to some films had passed to new corporate owners after their original distributors went belly up.
    — Josh Rottenberg, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2023
  • If a mining company goes belly up, state regulators can revoke its permits and use the bond money to clean up whatever mess is left.
    — Ken Ward Jr., ProPublica, 26 Apr. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'belly up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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