girdle

plural girdles

1. That which girds, encircles, or encloses; a circumference.

   the girdle of the world

   the equator

   3 more examples

   Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies

   1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, prologue]

   from the world's girdle to the frozen pole

   1782, William Cowper, Expostulation

   In yonder pensile orb, and every sphere that gems the starry girdle of the year

   1799, Thomas Campbell, Pleasures of Hope

2. A belt or sash at the waist, often used to support stockings or hosiery.

   O Queen, most exalted of Persia's deep-girdled women, venerable mother of Xerxes, wife of Darius, all hail!

   Aeschylus, The Persians 155

   4 more examples

   And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 15:6

   She therefore assumed the novice's garb, so universally worn by young Italians—a robe of black silk, only fastened round the waist by a girdle.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 109

   Her little chambers drip with flower-like red, Her girdles, and the chaplets of her head, Her armlets and her anklets; with her feet She tramples all that winepress of the dead.

   1862-1866, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Laus Veneris

   Tradition credits John the Baptist with wearing a girdle fashioned of wormwood, while he was in the wilderness.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 1

3. A garment used to hold the abdomen, hips, buttocks, and/or thighs in a particular shape.
4. The line of greatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting.
5. businessA thin bed or stratum of stone.
6. The clitellum of an earthworm.
7. The removal or inversion of a ring of bark in order to kill or stunt a tree.

present singular third person girdles · participle present girdling · participle past girdled · past girdled

1. transitiveTo gird, encircle, or constrain by such means.

   The Equator, as everyone knows, is an imaginary line or circle girdling the Earth half-way between the North and South poles.

   1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning, page 36

2. transitiveTo kill or stunt a tree by removing or inverting a ring of bark.

   The ordinary large reddish "hen hawks," which circle high above meadows, are doing great good to the farmer by feeding upon the mice and other creatures which steal his grain and girdle his trees.

   1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 108

plural girdles

1. Northern EnglishScotlandalternativeAlternative form of griddle.