gird
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡɜːd/
ipa: /ɡɝd/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d
Forms: form: girds
form: girding
form: girded
form: girded
form: girt
form: girt
Etymology: From Middle English girden, gerden, gürden, from Old English gyrdan (“to put a belt around, to put a girdle around”), from Proto-Germanic *gurdijaną (“to gird”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ-. Cognate with West Frisian gurdzje, girdzje, Dutch gorden, German gürten, Swedish gjorda, Icelandic gyrða, Albanian ngërthej (“to tie together by weaving, to bind”).
Senses: examples: text: The fasces were girt about with twine in bundles large.
text: We heere create thee the firſt Duke of Suffolke, / And girt thee with the Sword. Coſin of Yorke
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 120, column 2:
text: Gird thy sword vpon thy thigh, O most mightie: with thy glory and thy maiestie.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 45:3:
glosses: To bind with a flexible rope or cord.
examples: text: The lady girt herself with silver chain, from which she hung a golden shear.
text: And he put vpon him the coate, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the Ephod vpon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the Ephod, and bound it vnto him therewith.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 8:7:
text: Australia's sons, let us rejoice, / For we are young and free / We've golden soil and wealth for toil / Our home is girt by sea
ref: 1878, Peter Dodds McCormick, “Advance Australia Fair”:
text: It took me back across the dim gulf of ages to some happy home in dead Imperial Kôr, where this winsome lady girt about with beauty had lived and died, and dying taken her last-born with her to the tomb.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
glosses: To encircle with, or as if with a belt.
examples: text: Associate your selues, O ye people, and yee shalbe broken in pieces; and giue eare all ye of farre countreys: gird your selues, and ye shalbe broken in pieces; gird your selues, and ye shalbe broken in pieces.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 8:9:
text: The poet is not trying to conform to any of the old standards of behavior. She is instead focusing her rage and girding herself for battle.
ref: 1979 December 15, Stephanie Byrd, “An Injection of Spirit”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 21, page 10:
text: […] I was intrigued by the notion of ‘virtual beating’, so I entered the words in the Mamma search engine. I girded myself for the sleaziest sites on the net, the kind that advertise the video of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee uncut, […]
ref: 2000 April 15, Tanya Millbank, “The net addict”, in The Guardian:
text: The remarks came just days after Putin appeared to be girding Russians for a protracted war in Ukraine, saying that his military operation could be a “long-term process”.
ref: 2022 December 9, Andrew Roth, “Putin suggests possibility of settlement to end war in Ukraine”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To prepare (oneself) for an action.
examples: text: On 19 July 2009, the tug North Arm Venture was towing the barge North Arm Express, loaded with fuel and deck cargo, from Toba Inlet to Sechelt Inlet. The tug girded and capsized at approximately 1250 Pacific Daylight Time while making a turn to port at the entrance to Sechelt Rapids .... Girding is defined as a situation where a vessel experiences athwartship forces from its towline. This situation can lead to a capsizing or foundering.
ref: 2010, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Marine Investigation Report M09W0141
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: (of a vessel towing another) To be pulled on sideways by its towline, putting it at risk of capsizing.
Derived terms: begird
engird
overgird
undergird
ungird
upgird
Related terms: girder
girdle
gird one's loins
gird up one's loins
girt