Continuing Glossophilia’s 10-part series on bodily expressions.

We’ve gathered all the phrases and expressions we can possibly think of that make use of bodily parts in all their glory — and divided them into ten broad categories* descending from head to toe (and then some …). We’ve left out one- and two-word euphemistic adjectives and tried to avoid expressions that refer too literally to our actual limbs, organs or orifices; what follows are phrases that tend towards the metaphorical and poetic, even though some can also be taken more literally.

Here we have phrases using bellies and bottoms, hips, loins and backs. Next up: legs, feet, toes and heels.

Belly:

1. To go belly up

2. To air one’s belly

3. One’s eyes are bigger than one’s belly

4. To have fire in one’s belly

5. To have a yellow belly

Bottom/ass:

1. Smooth as a baby’s bottom

2. You (can) bet your ass

3. Have one’s ass in a sling

4. A pain in the ass

5. To bust one’s ass to do something

6. Cold as a welldigger’s ass

7. To cover one’s ass

8. To kick some ass

9. Laughing one’s ass off

10. Get one’s ass in gear

11. Thinks the sun shines out of his backside

12. He has his head up his ass

Hip:

1. Joined at the hip

2. To shoot from the hip

Loins:

1. Fruits of his loins

2. To gird (up) one’s loins

Side:

1. A thorn in my side

Back:

1. To pat/slap on the back

2. (to go) behind my back

3. To turn my back on

4. Get off my back

5. To be on someone’s back

6. Show some backbone

7. Have my back to/against the wall

8. To stab in the back

9. To get/put my back up

10. To scratch my back

11. To take the shirt off my back

12. To break one’s back

13. To put your back into something

14. He could do it with one hand tied behind his back

15. (Making) the beast with two backs

16. Water off a duck’s back

17. The straw that broke the camel’s back

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* Categories:

I: Hair, heads & brains
II: Eyes & ears
III: Faces, noses & mouths, teeth, cheeks & chins
IV: Necks, throats & shoulders
V: Chests, breasts & hearts
VI: Arms & hands, fingers & thumbs
VII: Bellies & bottoms, hips, loins & backs
VIII: Legs, feet, toes & heels
IX: Blood, sweat & tears, skin & bones, nerves, muscles
X: Bodies & skeletons