belly-timber

Alternative forms

 * ,, , and as two separate words

Noun

 * 1)  Food, provender.
 * 2) * 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, London: Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriot, under Saint Dunstan's Church in, 43488441; republished as Henry G[eorge] Bohn, editor, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler; with Variorum Notes, Selected Principally from Grey and Nash, volume I, London: Henry G. Bohn, 1859,  224652699, part 1, canto 1:
 * And tho' knights errant, as some think, / Of old did neither eat nor drink, / Because when thorough deserts vast, / And regions desolate, they past, / Where belly-timber above ground, / Or under, was not to be found [...]
 * 1) * 1718,, "Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind", in Poems on Several Occasions, London: J[acob] Tonson and J. Barber, 458176403, canto III; republished in ; , The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper; including the Series Edited, with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Dr. Samuel Johnson: And the Most Approved Translations. The Additional Lives by Alexander Chalmers, F.S.A. In Twenty-one Volumes. Hughes, Sheffield, Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Fenton, Gay, volume X, London: Printed for J. Johnson [et al.], 1810,  163876838, page 202:
 * The strength of every other member / Is founded on your belly-timber; / The qualms or raptures of your blood, / Rise in proportion to your food; [...]
 * The strength of every other member / Is founded on your belly-timber; / The qualms or raptures of your blood, / Rise in proportion to your food; [...]