Belly up

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If a plan or business goes belly up, it fails.

He bought stock in the company and then it went belly up. Bad timing. :-(

~R

To go bankrubt

A variant in the US is /tits up/.

Hi,

Is "belly up" a fairly common phrase? Does it sound childish?

Daruma said:

Hi,

Is "belly up" a fairly common phrase? Does it sound childish?

Click to expand...

It's common enough.

Hopelessly ruined or defeated ; especially : bankrupt.

Think of a dead fish floating 'belly up'.

gone bust

For further confusion, or maybe smiles, combine the saying with another one:

The plumbers futile attempts to loose weight went down the drain, belly up. :roll: :-D

Your plumber's failed diet may drive people round the bend.

Tdol said:

Your plumber's failed diet may drive people round the bend.

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That is good, but I do rather like the pun. (The plumber's futile attemps to lose weight went down the drain.)
;-)

This expression is not really used very commonly anymore in daily spoken English anymore. You're more likely to see it in print, I think. Another similar one is the use of the word 'bust,' which means to go broke or to fail financially. For instance one might say, 'the dot come boom went bust.'

good & best



:n00b:

I would say it is most common in relation to business. Its very common to hear that something has gone belly up. If you work in investment banking etc they have a whole raft of such expressions. You could say it's walked south for example. North and South being up and down on a compass and the direction the stock price has moved. I always assumed belly up referred to death. In the old cowboy movies they always seemed to land on thier backs after being shot in a gun fight.

If I start teaching here in the U.K, it is sure to go belly up.

go belly up (informal) to fail completely: Last year the business went belly up after one of the partners resigned.

meaning:

Hi,

BELLY UP:To approach closely


Thanks

I'm an American, and I feel really bad that I messed this up! Ugh