girdle

girdle is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 8 senses, and appears in Roget's Thesaurus (1911) with 40 related terms. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 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. Shak. Their breasts girded with golden girdles. Rev. xv.
  2. 2.2. The zodiac; also, the equator. [Poetic] Bacon. From the world's girdle to the frozen pole. Cowper. That gems the starry girdle of the year. Campbell.
  3. 3.(Jewelry) The line ofgreatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting. See Illust. of Brilliant. Knight.
  4. 4.(Mining) A thin bed or stratum of stone. Raymond.
  5. 5.(Zoöl.) The clitellus of an earthworm. Girdle bone (Anat.), the sphenethmoid. See under Sphenethmoid. -- Girdle wheel, a spinning wheel. -- Sea girdle (Zoöl.), a ctenophore. See Venus's girdle, under Venus. -- Shoulder, Pectoral, and Pelvic, girdle. (Anat.) See under Pectoral, and Pelvic. -- To have under the girdle, to have bound to one, that is, in subjection.
  6. 6.To bind with a belt or sash; to gird. Shak.
  7. 7.To inclose; to environ; to shut in. Those sleeping stones, That as a waist doth girdle you about. Shak.
  8. 8.To make a cut or gnaw a groove around (a tree, etc.) through the bark and alburnum, thus killing it. [U. S.]

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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Definition-first questions whose answer is girdle.

Sources

  • Definitions: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
  • Synonyms & antonyms: Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition (public domain, via Project Gutenberg eBook #10681).
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