What is "belt"

Belt \Belt\ (b[e^]lt), n. [AS. belt; akin to Icel. belti, Sw. b["a]lte, Dan. b[ae]lte, OHG. balz, L. balteus, Ir. & Gael. balt border, belt.]

1. That which engirdles a person or thing; a band or girdle; as, a lady's belt; a sword belt.

   The shining belt with gold inlaid.
   --Dryden.

2. That which restrains or confines as a girdle.

   He cannot buckle his distempered cause Within the belt of rule.
   --Shak.

3. Anything that resembles a belt, or that encircles or crosses like a belt; a strip or stripe; as, a belt of trees; a belt of sand.

4. (Arch.) Same as Band, n., 2. A very broad band is more properly termed a belt.

5. (Astron.) One of certain girdles or zones on the surface of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, supposed to be of the nature of clouds.

6. (Geog.) A narrow passage or strait; as, the Great Belt and the Lesser Belt, leading to the Baltic Sea.

7. (Her.) A token or badge of knightly rank.

8. (Mech.) A band of leather, or other flexible substance, passing around two wheels, and communicating motion from one to the other.

   Note: [See Illust. of Pulley.]

9. (Nat. Hist.) A band or stripe, as of color, round any organ; or any circular ridge or series of ridges.

   Belt lacing, thongs used for lacing together the ends of machine belting.

Belt \Belt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Belted; p. pr. & vb. n. Belting.] To encircle with, or as with, a belt; to encompass; to surround.

A coarse black robe belted round the waist.
--C. Reade.

They belt him round with hearts undaunted.
--Wordsworth.

2. To shear, as the buttocks and tails of sheep. [Prov. Eng.]
--Halliwell.

Old English belt "belt, girdle," from Proto-Germanic *baltjaz (cognates: Old High German balz, Old Norse balti, Swedish bälte), an early Germanic borrowing from Latin balteus "girdle, sword belt," said by Varro to be an Etruscan word.\n

\nAs a mark of rank or distinction, mid-14c.; references to boxing championship belts date from 1812. Mechanical sense is from 1795. Transferred sense of "broad stripe encircling something" is from 1660s. Below the belt "unfair" (1889) is from pugilism. To get something under (one's) belt is to get it into one's stomach. To tighten (one's) belt "endure privation" is from 1887.

early 14c., "to fasten or gird with a belt," from belt (n.). Meaning "to thrash as with a belt" is 1640s; general sense of "to hit, thrash" is attested from 1838. Colloquial meaning "to sing or speak vigorously" is from 1949. Related: Belted; belting. Hence (from the "thrash with a belt" sense) the noun meaning "a blow or stroke" (1899).

n. 1 A band worn around the waist to hold clothing to one's body (usually pants), hold weapons (such as a gun or sword), or serve as a decorative piece of clothing. 2 A band used as a restraint for safety purposes, such as a seat belt. 3 A band that is used in a machine to help transfer motion or power. 4 Anything that resembles a belt, or that encircles or crosses like a belt; a strip or stripe. 5 (context astronomy English) A collection of rocky-constituted bodies (such as asteroids) which orbit a star. 6 (context astronomy English) One of certain girdles or zones on the surface of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, supposed to be of the nature of clouds. 7 A powerful blow, often made with a fist or heavy object. 8 A quick drink of liquor. 9 (context usually capitalized English) A geographical region known for a particular product, feature or demographic (''Corn Belt'', ''Bible Belt'', ''Black Belt'', ''Green Belt''). 10 (context baseball English) The part of the strike zone at the height of the batter's waist. 11 (context weapons English) device that holds and feeds cartridges into a belt-fed weapon vb. 1 (context transitive English) To encircle. 2 (context transitive English) To fasten a belt. 3 (context transitive English) To hit with a belt. 4 (context transitive English) and intransitive To scream or sing in a loud manner. 5 (context transitive English) To drink quickly, often in gulps. 6 (context transitive slang English) To hit someone or something. 7 (context transitive baseball English) To hit a pitched ball a long distance, usually for a home run. 8 (context intransitive English) To move very fast

1. n. endless loop of flexible material between two rotating shafts or pulleys

2. a band to tie or buckle around the body (usually at the waist)

3. an elongated region where a specific condition is found; "a belt of high pressure"

4. a vigorous blow; "the sudden knock floored him"; "he took a bash right in his face"; "he got a bang on the head" [syn: knock, bash, bang, smash]

5. a path or strip (as cut by one course of mowing) [syn: swath]

6. the act of hitting vigorously; "he gave the table a whack" [syn: knock, rap, whack, whang]

1. v. sing loudly and forcefully [syn: belt out]

2. deliver a blow to; "He belted his opponent"

3. fasten with a belt; "belt your trousers" [ant: unbelt]

A belt is a flexible band or strap, typically made of leather or heavy cloth, and worn around the waist. A belt supports trousers or other articles of clothing.

Belt may refer to:

A belt is a loop of flexible material used to link two or more rotating shafts mechanically, most often parallel. Belts may be used as a source of motion, to transmit power efficiently, or to track relative movement. Belts are looped over pulleys and may have a twist between the pulleys, and the shafts need not be parallel. In a two pulley system, the belt can either drive the pulleys normally in one direction (the same if on parallel shafts), or the belt may be crossed, so that the direction of the driven shaft is reversed (the opposite direction to the driver if on parallel shafts). As a source of motion, a conveyor belt is one application where the belt is adapted to carry a load continuously between two points.

A belt or ammunition belt is a device used to retain and feed cartridges into a firearm. Belts and the associated feed systems are typically employed to feed machine guns or other automatic weapons. Belt-fed systems minimize the proportional weight of the ammunition to the feeding device along with allowing high rates of continuous fire.

Arguably, precursors to the belt-fed machine gun were the Cass rifle, patented in 1848, and the Treeby chain gun, patented in the 1850s. Belts were originally composed of canvas or cloth with pockets spaced evenly to allow the belt to be mechanically fed into the gun. These designs were prone to malfunctions due to the effects of oil and other contaminants altering the belt. Later belt designs used permanently connected metal links to retain the cartridges during feeding. These belts were more tolerant to exposure to solvents and oil. Many weapons designed to use non-disintegrating or canvas belts are provided with machines to automatically reload these belts with loose rounds or rounds held in stripper clips. In use during World War I, reloaders allowed ammunition belts to be recycled quickly to allow practically continuous fire.

Many modern ammunition belts use disintegrating links. Disintegrating links retain a single round and are articulated with the round ahead of it in the belt. When the round ahead is stripped from the belt and fed into the feed system or chamber, the link holding it is ejected and the link holding the following round is disarticulated.

Modern infantry machine guns often have feed systems allowing the use of linked ammunition or other forms of feed like magazines or drums. In some instances—like the FN MINIMI/ M249 SAW and the IMI Negev—the feed system requires no modification to fire with either mechanism. Other designs—like the Heckler and Koch HK21-based designs or MG34—require the exchange of modular parts to allow belt or alternate feeding. Due to the lack of protection provided by the belt, belt-fed infantry weapons typically use a flexible or rigid container to retain the belt on the weapon. In some designs—like the MG3—the belt container appears to be a magazine causing some confusion to people unfamiliar with the design. The capacity of belts and carriers is typically a function of weight and bulk. Their size is limited by caliber and the portability of the combined weapon and ammunition. The most common sizes typically carried on a man-portable weapon run from 50 to 300 rounds.