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Girl
Definitions
- 1 A Chinese constellation located near Aquarius, one of the 28 lunar mansions and part of the Black Turtle.
- 1 A female child. countable, uncountable
"I saw a little girl feeding, brushing, and talking to a heifer."
- 2 a female human offspring wordnet
- 3 A woman, especially a young and often attractive woman. countable, offensive, sometimes, uncountable
"He has a crush on a girl at work. We were kidding with him yesterday about his work crush."
- 4 a youthful female person wordnet
- 5 A term of address to a female (see usage notes) colloquial, countable, uncountable
"Hey, girl, I haven't seen you since last week! Where you been?"
Show 14 more definitions
- 6 a young female wordnet
- 7 One's girlfriend. countable, uncountable
"He lucked out with that girl of his. Smart, sweet, sassy, and pretty too."
- 8 a friendly informal reference to a grown woman wordnet
- 9 One's daughter. countable, uncountable
"Your girl turned up on our doorstep. She was crying about the argument on the playground. We let her vent."
- 10 a girl or young woman with whom a man is romantically involved wordnet
- 11 A female friend. countable, especially, uncountable
- 12 A female non-human animal, especially, in affectionate address, a female pet, especially a dog. countable, uncountable
"Hey, Tricksy, come here, girl! Do you want a treat? Yes, you love those biscuits, don't you! What a good girl! Here's another!"
- 13 A female (tree, gene, etc). childish, countable, uncountable
"Are you getting a boy cat or a girl cat?"
- 14 A machine or vehicle, especially one that the speaker uses often and is fond of. countable, informal, uncountable
"The old girl ain't as pretty as she once was, but she still purrs like a kitten and still gets out of her own way!"
- 15 A female servant; a maid. (see usage notes) countable, uncountable
"He assumed that the girls should clean up his giant mess. We straightened out his misconception."
- 16 Cocaine, especially in powder form. US, slang, uncountable
"He's the sort of lowlife who snorts coke and refers to it as his girl."
- 17 A queen (the playing card). countable, slang, uncommon, uncountable
"Are your sure you want to discard that old girl?"
- 18 A roebuck two years old. UK, countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable
- 19 A child of any gender. countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 1 To feminize or girlify; to gender as a girl or as for girls. transitive
"Quite different is the way in which the tomboy girled the rebel narrative. In recent years, queer theorists have taken a deep interest in the tomboy as a prefigure for the butch dyke."
- 2 To staff with or as a girl or girls. informal
"Making our way past a one-girl switchboard temporarily girled by two frantic operators, we found the victorious president, Elliott A. Bowles, barely visible behind a heap of telegrams [...]"
Etymology
From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person (boy or girl)”), perhaps from Old English *gyrele, from Proto-West Germanic *gurilā, from a zero-grade diminutive of *gaurā (“young child”) + *-ilā. Ultimately of unknown origin. Doublet of gal/gyal and gyaru.
From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person (boy or girl)”), perhaps from Old English *gyrele, from Proto-West Germanic *gurilā, from a zero-grade diminutive of *gaurā (“young child”) + *-ilā. Ultimately of unknown origin. Doublet of gal/gyal and gyaru.
Calque of Mandarin 女宿 (Nǚxiù).
See also for "girl"
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