c. 1600, from under + belly (n.). In figurative sense of "most vulnerable part" it is recorded from Churchill's 1942 speech. Sometimes used erroneously or euphemistically in sense of "seamy or sordid part" of anything.
双语例句
1. The missiles emerge from the underbelly of the transport plane.
导弹从那架运输机的底部飞了出来。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The trade deficit remains the soft underbelly of the US economy.
贸易赤字仍是美国经济的软肋。
来自《权威词典》
3. The ANC are attacking rugby because it is the soft underbelly of South African sport.
橄榄球运动在“非国大”受到抨击，因为它是南非体育的软肋。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Inadvertent disclosures by judges sometimes offer an extraordinary glimpse of the legal system's underbelly.
法官无意中透露的一些情况有时能见微知著地揭示出司法制度的薄弱之处。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The stock - market crisis struck at the soft underbelly of the US economy, eg its trade deficit.
