Could you please what the meaning of "punch to the gut" is?
The text is here:
Two hours later Dad had blocked off half the kitchen
with plywood sheets. The owl convalesced there for several weeks. We
trapped mice to feed it, but sometimes it didn’t eat them, and we couldn’t
clear away the carcasses. The smell of death was strong and foul, a punch
to the gut.
Educated Tara Westover
Best Answer
A punch to the gut (or sometimes called gut-punch or emotional gut punch) is pretty much synonymous with something that is gut-wrenching, which is easier to find in dictionaries. Collins says that gut-wrenching events or experiences make you feel very sad or upset.
TFD lists a related idiom, kick in the gut, and defines it as a severe blow to one's body or spirit.
A 2011 book by Dixon & Adamson says:
The word guts is an interesting word in English; it has several meanings, one of which is “an innermost emotional response” (see Wordnik, for example). So a punch (or kick) in the guts is something that affects you strongly in an emotional sense.