belly vs bolster

belly

noun
  • The main curved portion of a knife blade. 

  • The stomach. 

  • The abdomen, especially a fat one. 

  • The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part). 

  • The womb. 

  • The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back. 

  • The lower fuselage of an airplane. 

verb
  • To swell and become protuberant; to bulge or billow. 

  • To cause to swell out; to fill. 

  • To position one’s belly; to move on one’s belly. 

bolster

noun
  • The part of a knife blade that abuts upon the end of the handle. 

  • The metallic end of a pocketknife handle. 

  • A large cushion or pillow. 

  • A small spacer located on top of the axle of horse-drawn wagons that gives the front wheels enough clearance to turn. 

  • The perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched. 

  • A pad, quilt, or anything used to hinder pressure, support part of the body, or make a bandage sit easy upon a wounded part; a compress. 

  • A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation. 

  • A short, horizontal structural timber between a post and a beam for enlarging the bearing area of the post and/or reducing the span of the beam. 

  • The rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital. 

  • A beam in the middle of a railway truck, supporting the body of the car. 

verb
  • To brace, reinforce, secure, or support. 

How often have the words belly and bolster occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )