Definition of "midriff" []

• See diaphragm. (noun)
• The middle outer portion of the front of the human body, extending roughly from just below the breast to the waistline. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In later years, I thought maybe the instructors were worried about the boys not learning if they were staring at girls in midriff tops."
• "Picture grown men, dressed in midriff-baring blouses, tight miniskirts, and beads, girating in the streets!"
• "Next in order is the middle region, or chest, which comprehends the vital faculties and parts; which (as I have said) is separated from the lower belly by the diaphragma or midriff, which is a skin consisting of many nerves, membranes; and amongst other uses it hath, is the instrument of laughing."