«وَقْتِ الْبُطُونْ تُتُوهِ الْعُقُولْ»

The saying holds that hunger and the act of eating take over a person's attention. Once food is on the table, or the stomach is demanding it, other concerns slip out of mind. Reasoning, manners, and unfinished business all give way to the plain need to eat.

Applied to people, it describes total absorption. Here 'bellies' stands for hunger and eating, not gluttony or greed. A hungry person who turns to food becomes so occupied with it that questions and requests fail to register, as though the mind had stepped aside.

Say it of someone who is hungry or in the middle of a meal and seems oblivious to everything else: deaf to conversation, forgetful of a task, or unable to focus on anything but the food in front of them.