GIRD (girt)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: girt   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gird mean? 

• GIRD (verb)
  The verb GIRD has 3 senses:

1. prepare oneself for a military confrontation

2. put a girdle on or around

3. bind with something round or circular

  Familiarity information: GIRD used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GIRD (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they gird    ... he / she / it girds   
Past simple: girded    / girt   
Past participle: girded    / girt   
-ing form: girding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Prepare oneself for a military confrontation

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

arm; build up; fortify; gird

Context example:

troops are building up on the Iraqi border

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gird"):

re-arm; rearm (arm anew)

forearm (arm in advance of a confrontation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Put a girdle on or around

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

gird; girdle

Context example:

gird your loins

Hypernyms (to "gird" is one way to...):

border; environ; ring; skirt; surround (extend on all sides of simultaneously; encircle)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Bind with something round or circular

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

encircle; gird

Hypernyms (to "gird" is one way to...):

bind (make fast; tie or secure, with or as if with a rope)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gird"):

hoop (bind or fasten with a hoop)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

High, leafless trees girt it in on three sides, with a thick undergrowth of holly between their trunks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A splendid Midsummer shone over England: skies so pure, suns so radiant as were then seen in long succession, seldom favour even singly, our wave- girt land.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“The phenomena of life, Hump,” he girded at me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The beech, the oak, and even the birch were to be found among the tangle of trees which girt us in.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was a different man from the limp and lounging figure in the mouse-coloured dressing-gown who had prowled so restlessly only a few hours before round the fog-girt room.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Never again did Champion Harrison throw his leg over the ropes of a twenty-four-foot ring; but the story of the great battle between the smith and the West Countryman is still familiar to old ring-goers, and nothing pleased him better than to re-fight it all, round by round, as he sat in the sunshine under his rose-girt porch.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Eighty poles, each of one foot high, were erected for this purpose, and very strong cords, of the bigness of packthread, were fastened by hooks to many bandages, which the workmen had girt round my neck, my hands, my body, and my legs.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

After dinner the squire and the doctor sat by the captain's side awhile in consultation; and when they had talked to their hearts' content, it being then a little past noon, the doctor took up his hat and pistols, girt on a cutlass, put the chart in his pocket, and with a musket over his shoulder crossed the palisade on the north side and set off briskly through the trees.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Sir Nigel, Sir Nigel! you owe me a return for this, and he touched his right arm, which was girt round just under the shoulder with a silken kerchief.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)