Gird

//ɡɜːd// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sarcastic remark.

    "I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio."

  2. 2
    A stroke with a rod or switch.
  3. 3
    A severe spasm; a twinge; a pang.

    "Conscience […] is freed from many fearful girds and twinges which the atheist feels."

Verb
  1. 1
    To bind with a flexible rope or cord. transitive

    "The fasces were girt about with twine in bundles large."

  2. 2
    To jeer at. transitive

    "Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods."

  3. 3
    prepare oneself for a military confrontation wordnet
  4. 4
    To encircle with, or as if with a belt. transitive

    "a castle girded with a moat"

  5. 5
    To jeer. intransitive

    "Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    bind with something round or circular wordnet
  2. 7
    To prepare (oneself) for an action. reflexive, transitive

    "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."

  3. 8
    put a girdle on or around wordnet
  4. 9
    (of a vessel towing another) To be pulled on sideways by its towline, putting it at risk of capsizing. intransitive

    "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."

Synonyms

All synonyms
girdlegirthjeerjibescoffscorn

Antonyms

All antonyms
cheer

Example

More examples

"All straightway gird them to the feast. These flay / the ribs and thighs, and lay the entrails bare. / Those slice the flesh, and split the quivering prey, / and tend the fires and set the cauldrons in array."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English girden (“to strike”), from Old English *gyrdan.

Related phrases

gird up one’s loins

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.