soft underbelly

soft underbelly

English

Etymology

From Winston Churchill’s phrase “soft underbelly of the Axis (or Europe)” (1942) [1].

Noun

soft underbelly (plural soft underbellies)

1. (idiomatic) A weak spot; a soft spot.

   The current, predominantly right-wing perception is of the Balkans as a contagious disease, an infectious sore in the soft underbelly of Europe, best left to fester in isolation. Southeast European Studies in a Globalizing World‎, 12th January 2014

Translations

weak spot

French: ventre mou (fr) m

Further reading

• soft underbelly at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

1. Were “Soft Underbelly” and “Fortress Europe” Churchill Phrases?, The Churchill Project, April 1, 2016