belt

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
belt/belt/

▶noun

• 1 a strip of leather or other material worn round the waist to support or hold in clothes or to carry weapons.

  ■ a belt worn as a sign of rank or achievement, as in judo, karate, or similar sports.

  ■ (the belt) the punishment of being struck with a belt.

• 2 a continuous band of material used in machinery for transferring motion from one wheel to another.

• 3 a strip or encircling area of a specified kind: the asteroid belt.

• 4 informal a heavy blow.

▶verb

• 1 fasten or secure with a belt.

• 2 beat or hit very hard.

  ■ (belt something out) informal sing or play something loudly and without finesse.

• 3 informal rush or dash in a specified direction.

• 4 (belt up) Brit. informal be quiet.

– phrases
below the belt unfair; disregarding the rules.
belt and braces Brit. providing double security, by using more than one means to the same end.
tighten one's belt cut one's expenditure.
under one's belt safely or satisfactorily achieved, experienced, or acquired.

– derivatives
belted adjective,
belting noun.

– origin OE, of Gmc origin, from L. balteus ‘girdle’.