Emily Dickinson Lexicon

belt, n. [OE < L.]

1. Flexible strap; accessory that binds clothing on a person; flat band of leather around the waist; [fig.] restraint; control; restriction; limitation; constraint; manacle; [metaphor] vow of seclusion; covenant setting a person apart from others.
2. Channel; strait; narrow passage; [fig.] river; stream of water.
3. Sash; girdle; waistband; cummerbund; narrow strip of material.
4. Region; district; tract; zone; continuous series of objects; [fig.] Milky Way; sector of space.
5. Flat circulating strap between wheels; narrow band for communicating motion to gears; [fig.] cognition; mental process.