girdle
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈɡɝdl̩/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈɡɜːdl̩/
Noun

girdle (plural girdles)

  1. That which girds, encircles, or encloses; a circumference
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, prologue]:
      Suppose within the girdle of these walls
      Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies
  2. A belt or elasticated corset; especially, a belt, sash, or article of dress encircling the body usually at the waist, often used to support stockings or hosiery.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Revelation 15:6 ↗:
      And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles
  3. The zodiac; also, the equator.
    • that gems the starry girdle of the year
    • from the world's girdle to the frozen pole
  4. The line of greatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting.
  5. (mining) A thin bed or stratum of stone.
  6. The clitellum of an earthworm.
Translations Translations Translations Verb

girdle (girdles, present participle girdling; past and past participle girdled)

  1. (transitive) To gird, encircle, or constrain by such means.
  2. (transitive) To kill or stunt a tree by removing or inverting a ring of bark.
Noun

girdle (plural girdles)

  1. (Scottish, Northern English) Alternative form of griddle



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Offline English dictionary