stomach

/ˈstʌmək/

/ˈstʌmək/

Other forms: stomachs; stomached; stomaching; stomaches

The stomach is the organ of your body — kind of a big sac — that digests food. We also say people have a stomach for something unpleasant when they can handle it.

Without a stomach, you'd be in trouble: that's where your food gets digested and turned into useful material your body can use for energy. If you ever got punched in the stomach or had a stomach ache, it can hurt a lot. Also, stomach can mean having a hunger, or at least tolerance, for something. If you can't stomach watching football, then you can't stand watching it. If you have a stomach for something, you can swallow it.

Definitions of stomach

1. noun

   an enlarged and muscular saclike organ of the alimentary canal; the principal organ of digestion
   synonyms: breadbasket, tum, tummy

   types:

   craw, crop

   a pouch in many birds and some lower animals that resembles a stomach for storage and preliminary maceration of food

   first stomach, rumen

   the first compartment of the stomach of a ruminant; here food is collected and returned to the mouth as cud for chewing

   reticulum, second stomach

   the second compartment of the stomach of a ruminant

   omasum, psalterium, third stomach

   the third compartment of the stomach of a ruminant

   abomasum, fourth stomach

   the fourth compartment of the stomach of a ruminant; the one where digestion takes place

   type of:

   internal organ, viscus

   a main organ that is situated inside the body
2. noun

   the region of the body of a vertebrate between the thorax and the pelvis
   synonyms: abdomen, belly, venter

   types:

   underbelly, underbody

   the soft belly or underside of an animal's body

   type of:

   body part

   any part of an organism such as an organ or extremity
3. noun

   an appetite for food
   “exercise gave him a good stomach for dinner”

   type of:

   appetence, appetency, appetite

   a feeling of craving something
4. noun

   an inclination or liking for things involving conflict or difficulty or unpleasantness
   “he had no stomach for a fight”

   type of:

   inclination

   that toward which you are inclined to feel a liking
5. verb

   put up with something or somebody unpleasant
   synonyms: abide, bear, brook, digest, endure, put up, stand, stick out, suffer, support, tolerate

   suffer

   experience (emotional) pain

   types:

   accept, live with, swallow

   tolerate or accommodate oneself to

   hold still for, stand for

   tolerate or bear

   bear up

   endure cheerfully

   take lying down

   suffer without protest; suffer or endure passively

   take a joke

   listen to a joke at one's own expense

   sit out

   endure to the end

   pay

   bear (a cost or penalty), in recompense for some action

   get one's lumps, take one's lumps

   suffer the results or consequences of one's behavior or actions

   type of:

   allow, countenance, let, permit

   consent to, give permission
6. verb

   bear to eat
   “He cannot stomach raw fish”

   type of:

   digest

   convert food into absorbable substances