Advertisement

underbelly (n.)

c. 1600, from under + belly (n.). In figurative sense of "most vulnerable part" it is recorded from Churchill's 1942 speech. Sometimes used erroneously or euphemistically in sense of "seamy or sordid part" of anything.

Others are reading

Advertisement
Definitions of underbelly from WordNet

underbelly (n.)
lower side;
underbelly (n.)
the soft belly or underside of an animal's body;
Synonyms: underbody
underbelly (n.)
the quality of being weak or unprotected; "the soft underbelly of the Axis"- Winston Churchill;
From wordnet.princeton.edu