Overgird

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Something that encompasses and binds together; an encapsulation.

    "And finally, as an overgird to the whole piece, we need to establish policies that are clear to each employee in the Department of Energy and contractors that indicate, first of all, that program implementation and development happens through the Federal arm and not through contractor hand and mind."

Verb
  1. 1
    To gird too closely. transitive

    "Yes, and all wholesome herbs, and all fresh dews, by your violent and hidebound frost; but, when the gentle west winds shall open the fruitful bosom of the earth , thus overgirded by your imprisonment , then the flowers put forth and spring, and then the sun shall scatter the mists, and the manuring hand of the tiller shall root up all that burdens the soil, without thank to your bondage."

  2. 2
    To encircle; to gird over.

    "She is dressed in a long, overgirt Ionic chiton and a heavy himation, one end of which she holds with her extended right hand."

  3. 3
    To encapsulate; to encompass and bind together.

    "If He promises eternal life, there must be an immortality somewhere, that binds the promise together; and to the forces of nature on this side of God, we add such things as we can imagine on the other side of God; and with our bark thus undergirded and overgirded, we can trust immortal hopes, and immortal fears, too, upon it."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Encircling.

    "The left maenad on A and B of the Oxford cup wears the same overgird Doric peplos of Smithsonian, side B and one attributed to the Painter of Athens."

Example

More examples

"The left maenad on A and B of the Oxford cup wears the same overgird Doric peplos of Smithsonian, side B and one attributed to the Painter of Athens."

Etymology

From over- + gird.

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