yard
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /jɑːd/
enpr: yärd
ipa: /jɑɹd/
note: Dublin
ipa: /jæːɹd/
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)d
Forms: form: yards
form: yard
form: yaird
form: yeard
form: yerd
form: yod
Etymology: From Middle English ȝerde, yerd, ȝerd, from Old English ġierd (“branch; rod, staff; measuring stick; yardland”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaʀd, from Proto-Germanic *gazdaz. Cognate with Dutch gard (“twig”), German Gerte and probably related to Latin hasta (“spear”).
Senses: examples: text: Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’[…].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A unit of length equal to 3 feet in the US customary and British imperial systems of measurement, equal to precisely 0.9144 m since 1959 (US) or 1963 (UK).
glosses: A unit of length equal to 3 feet in the US customary and British imperial systems of measurement, equal to precisely 0.9144 m since 1959 (US) or 1963 (UK).
Ellipsis of square yard, a unit of area; common with textiles.
glosses: A unit of length equal to 3 feet in the US customary and British imperial systems of measurement, equal to precisely 0.9144 m since 1959 (US) or 1963 (UK).
Ellipsis of cubic yard, a unit of volume; common in mining and earthmoving.
glosses: Units of similar composition or length in other systems.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Any spar carried aloft.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Any spar carried aloft.
A long tapered timber hung on a mast to which is bent a sail, and may be further qualified as a square, lateen, or lug yard. The first is hung at right angles to the mast, the latter two hang obliquely.
glosses: A branch, twig, or shoot.
glosses: A staff, rod, or stick.
examples: text: Loues her by the foot. Dum. He may not by the yard.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
text: there were some people found who tooke pleasure to unhood the end of their yard, and to cut off the fore-skinne after the manner of the Mahometans and Jewes[…].
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: [T]he testicles are quite exposed, but they wrap a piece of cloth or leafe round the yard which they tye up to the belly to a cord or bandage which they wear round the waist just under the short ribbs and over the belly and so tight that it was a wonder to us how they could endure it.
ref: 1774, James Cook, The Journals, Second Voyage, 23 July
glosses: A penis.
glosses: 100 dollars.
examples: text: You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land.
ref: a. 1634, W. Noye, The Complete Lawyer, section 57:
glosses: The yardland, an obsolete English unit of land roughly understood as 30 acres.
glosses: The rod, a surveying unit of (once) 15 or (now) 16+¹⁄₂ feet.
glosses: The rood, area bound by a square rod, ¹⁄₄ acre.
Synonyms: sense: arm length
word: ell
sense: See hundred
word: $100
sense: surveying measure
word: rod
sense: large unit of area
word: virgate
sense: small unit of area
word: rood
Hypernyms: sense: unit of area
word: virgate
Hyponyms: sense: unit of area
word: virgate
Derived terms: 18-yard line
440-yard dash
all wool and a yard wide
by the yard
clay yard
cloth yard
cloth-yard
cubic yard
fore-yard
foreyard
golden yard
jackyard
main yard
main-yard
mast-yard
meteyard
mizen-yard
mizen yard
mizzen-yard
mizzen yard
royal yardman
sailyard
six-yard box
square yard
steelyard
under the yard
upper yardman
whole nine yards
yardage
yardarita
yard-arm
yardarm
yard-coal
yarded
yardel
yard-fell
yard goods
yard jockey
yardland
yard-long
yard-measure
yard of ale
yard of clay
yard of land
yard of lime
yard of mortar
yard of satin
yard of stone
yard of tin
yard-rope
yard-seam
yard-stick
yardstick
yard-wand
yardwand