1
general::
Phrase(s): belly up
1. intoxicated by alcohol. • Fred was boiled— belly up—glassy-eyed. • After four beers, I was belly up, for sure. 2. Sl. (of a business) bankrupt; dead. (Like a dead fish that floats belly up.) • That’s the end. This company is belly up. • After the fire the firm went belly up., Phrase(s): belly up (to something)
to move up to something, often a bar. (Usually in reference to nudging one’s way to a bar.) • The man swaggered in and bellied up to the counter and demanded my immediate attention. • As he bellied up, he said, "Do you know who I am?"
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs