GIRDLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Girdle

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/gˈərdəl/ Listen

noun

Girdle n. A griddle. (Scot. & Prov. Eng.)

Girdle n.

1.

That which girds, encircles, or incloses; a circumference; a belt; esp., a belt, sash, or article of dress encircling the body usually at the waist; a cestus. " Within the girdle of these walls." "Their breasts girded with golden girdles."

2.

The zodiac; also, the equator. (Poetic) "From the world's girdle to the frozen pole." "That gems the starry girdle of the year."

3.

(Jewelry) The line ofgreatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting.

4.

(Mining) A thin bed or stratum of stone.

5.

(Zool.) The clitellus of an earthworm.

Girdle bone (Anat.), the sphenethmoid. See under Sphenethmoid.

Girdle wheel, a spinning wheel.

Sea girdle (Zool.), a ctenophore. See Venus's girdle, under Venus.

Shoulder girdle, Pectoral girdle, and Pelvic girdle. (Anat.) See under Pectoral, and Pelvic.

To have under the girdle, to have bound to one, that is, in subjection.

verb

Girdle v. t. (past & past part. girdled; pres. part. girdling)

1.

To bind with a belt or sash; to gird.

2.

To inclose; to environ; to shut in. "Those sleeping stones, That as a waist doth girdle you about."

3.

To make a cut or gnaw a groove around (a tree, etc.) through the bark and alburnum, thus killing it. (U. S.)

See images of 'Girdle'

Etymology of 'Girdle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Girdle" Quotes from Famous Books

... a votary or priestess of a goddess to whom snakes were sacred. The petticoat of this lady is very modern, being long, decorated with flounces (a series of five) and bell-shaped. The dress is further remarkable for a tight ring-like girdle which greatly compresses the waist and emphasises the broad hips. The little statue is about ten inches high, and was found by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos, the ancient buried city the capital of ...

— More Science From an Easy Chair • Sir E. Ray (Edwin Ray) Lankester

... you shall repeat no more," cried Remy, seizing him by the girdle and dragging him from his horse. Both rolled on the ground together, and Aurilly stretched out his hand to reach ...

— The Forty-Five Guardsmen • Alexandre Dumas

... was sent for to become sponsor, and was conducted into the lake, where she found the toad now in guise of a woman. After the ceremony was over, the lake-woman rewarded her with a bushel of straw, and sent by her hand a girdle for her mistress. On the way home the girl tried the girdle on a tree to see how it would look, and in a moment the tree was torn into a thousand pieces. This was the punishment devised by the lake-woman for her mistress, because she had ...

— The Science of Fairy Tales - An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology • Edwin Sidney Hartland

... spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. 4. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 5. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 7. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren

... the same fundamental cause. The volcano was, in fact, long regarded as more intimately connected with earthquakes than it, probably, actually is; the association being regarded in a causative light, whereas the connexion is more that of possessing a common origin. The girdle of volcanoes around the Pacific and the earthquake belt coincide. Again, the ancient and modern volcanoes and earthquakes of Europe are associated with the geosyncline of the greater Mediterranean, the Tethys of Mesozoic times. There is no ...

— The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays • J. (John) Joly

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