Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To gird.
  • intransitive verb To secure with a girth.
  • intransitive verb To measure the girth of.
  • intransitive verb To measure in girth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To measure or have a girth of: as, the tree girts eight feet.
  • To measure by a girding-line.
  • noun Preterit and past participle of gird.
  • noun An obsolete preterit and past participle of gird.
  • noun A beam; a small girder; a crosspiece in a frame.
  • Nautical, having her cables so taut, as a vessel when moored, as to prevent her from swinging to the wind or tide.
  • In entomology, same as braced, 2.
  • Same as gird.
  • noun Same as girth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as girth.
  • adjective (Naut.) Bound by a cable; -- used of a vessel so moored by two anchors that she swings against one of the cables by force of the current or tide.
  • imp. & p. p. of gird.
  • transitive verb To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of gird.
  • noun A horizontal structural member of post and beam architecture, typically attached to bridge two or more vertical members such as corner posts.
  • verb To gird.
  • verb To bind horizontally, as with a belt or girdle.
  • verb To measure the girth of.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Variant of gird.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of girth ("belt, circumference, brace")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English girten ("gird, encircle")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See gird

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Examples

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  • Citation on neatherd.

    June 30, 2008

  • With golden soil and wealth for toil,

    Our home is girt by sea.

    -- Advance Australia Fair

    July 23, 2008

  • Thus girt without and garrisoned at home,

    Day patient following day,

    Old Charleston looks from roof and spire and dome,

    Across her tranquil bay.

    - Henry Timrod, 'Charleston'.

    September 14, 2009