Meaning
A tight, swollen, drum-like belly — used of a distended stomach, as on a child who has stuffed himself or is bloated, the belly stretched taut like a drum. The vivid name pictures a belly you could bang on. In a quite separate sense, 'bang-belly' is also the name of a dense, heavy baked pudding of cornmeal and coconut, so solid it sits like a stone, and context tells which is meant — the over-full stomach or the stodgy sweet.
Examples
-
Di pickney eat till him get a bang belly.
The child ate until he had a tight, swollen belly.
-
Granny bake a bang belly pudding fi Sunday.
Granny baked a bang-belly pudding for Sunday.
-
Him belly full an tight like a bang belly.
His belly is full and tight as a drum.
Origin
From 'bang' (tight/taut, as a drumhead is banged) plus 'belly' — a belly stretched drum-tight; the pudding is so named for its dense, heavy body.
How it’s used
Used both for a bloated, drum-tight stomach and for the heavy cornmeal-coconut pudding.