girl

plural girls · alternative colloquial gal · alternative colloquial guhl · alternative UK slang gel · alternative obsolete girle · alternative obsolete gyrle · alternative Internet gorl · alternative Internet gril · alternative slang grrrl · alternative slang grrl · alternative nonstandard guhrl · alternative nonstandard gurl · alternative slang gworl · alternative gyal

1. countableuncountableA female child.

   I saw a little girl feeding, brushing, and talking to a heifer.

2. countableoffensivesometimesuncountablesee usage noteA woman, especially a young and often attractive woman.

   He has a crush on a girl at work. We were kidding with him yesterday about his work crush.

   1 more example

   I didn’t want to just look cool, or just look rock and roll; I wanted to look more girl. Looking back, I was trying to make more of a definite statement about what my look was and how I wanted to present myself. Tomboy, but more ambiguous than tomboy, too.

   2015, Kim Gordon, chapter 27, in Carrie Thornton, editor, Girl in a Band, New York: Dey st., →ISBN, page 161

3. colloquialcountableuncountableA term of address to a female (see usage notes)

   Hey, girl, I haven't seen you since last week! Where you been?

   3 more examples

   "My dear girl, what has he done?" said Mrs. Mallowe, sweetly. It is noticeable that ladies of a certain age call each other "dear girl," just as commissioners of twenty-eight years' standing address their equals in the Civil List as "my boy."

   1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 10

   "What a pity you couldn't see it." "Isn't it?" I agreed. "Now do go away, there's a good girl."

   1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 14

   'Now, girls,' continued Healey, 'you're very high-spirited and that's as it should be but I won't have you getting out of hand.[…]' […] Setting a spatted foot on the bench that ran down the middle of the changing-room with elegant distain, Adrian began to flip through a pile of Y-fronts and rugger shorts with his cane.

   1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, pages 5–6

   Synonyms: girlie, lass, lassie

4. colloquialcountableuncountableOne's girlfriend.

   He lucked out with that girl of his. Smart, sweet, sassy, and pretty too.

   4 more examples

   There isn't any guy going to steal my girl!

   1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Girl from Hollywood

   He's got a girl named Jane With no last name Kinda homely and plain Loves her just the same.

   1969, “Gitarzan”, Ray Stevens, Bill Everette (lyrics), performed by Ray Stevens

   I took my girl to the cinema to watch your American movies.

   1996, Elizabeth Wong, Kimchee and Chitlins: A Serious Comedy about Getting Along, page 74

   Don't look at me, you got a girl at home And everybody knows that, everybody knows that, ah-ah Don't look at me, you got a girl at home And everybody knows that

   2012, Taylor Swift, “Girl at Home”, in Red, performed by Taylor Swift

5. colloquialcountableuncountableOne's daughter.

   Your girl turned up on our doorstep. She was crying about the argument on the playground. We let her vent.

6. countableespeciallyuncountableA female friend.
7. countableuncountableA female non-human animal, especially, in affectionate address, a female pet, especially a dog.

   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!

   1 more example

   Sheila – 9yo Blue Cattle Dog x. Lovely girl seeks forever home.

   2025 March 9, Australian Cattle Dog Rescue

8. childishcountableuncountableA female (tree, gene, etc).

   Are you getting a boy cat or a girl cat?

   3 more examples

   Are there “boy” trees and “girl” trees? Yes. A number of species, among them the yew, holly and date-bearing palm, have their male and female flowers on different trees. The male holly, for instance, must be planted fairly close to the female ...

   1950, Pageant, page 51

   Of the 100 percent total, 25 will have two girl genes, 50 will have one boy and one girl gene, and 25 will have two boy genes.

   1970 [earlier 1963], Helen V. Wilson, Helen Van Pelt, Helen Van Pelt's African Violets, Dutton Adult

   When there are two "girl" genes the plant is a girl dwarf.

   1972, GSN Gesneriad Saintpaulia News: African Violets, Gloxinias, Other Gesneriads and Exotic Plants, volumes 9–10, page 37

9. countableinformaluncountableA machine or vehicle, especially one that the speaker uses often and is fond of.

   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!

   4 more examples

   Daly came, delved into the old girl's inner works, and had her working in jig time.

   1917 June 29, Les Enfant, “The Trials of Commuter Jones—a Would-Be Pumber”, in Metal Worker, Pumber, and Steam Fitter, volume 87, number 26, page 874

   “Quiet, everyone!” said Dad as he tried desperately to start the car. GRRR… GRRR… GRRR… Instead of shuddering into life, Queenie let out a low, grinding noise. “Oh no,” said Dad. “What?” asked the boy. “The engine must have flooded when she went upside down. The poor old girl won’t start again now for hours. We’re going to have to walk.”

   2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

   The tired old girl was listing heavily in the heavy seas.

   2013, Rose George, Deep Sea and Foreign Going

   I ran to my car and jumped in. "Come on, girl, start for me, baby!"

   2024, William Halford, POR! Prince of Borland, page 58

10. countableuncountableA female servant; a maid. (see usage notes)

    He assumed that the girls should clean up his giant mess. We straightened out his misconception.

    Synonyms: char, charlady, charwoman, maid, maiden, maidservant, womanservant

11. USslanguncountableCocaine, especially in powder form.

    He's the sort of lowlife who snorts coke and refers to it as his girl.

    4 more examples

    She had taught me to snort girl, and almost always when I came to her pad, there would be thin sparkling rows of crystal cocaine on the glass top of the cocktail table.

    1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Cash Money Content, published 2011, →ISBN, page 43

    Elijah nodded congenially to the early evening regulars in the Afro Lounge, headed straight for the telephone hung midway between the mens and womens, his nose smarting from a couple thick lines of recently snorted girl.

    1977, Odie Hawkins, Chicago Hustle, Holloway House, published 1987, →ISBN, page 175

    After about an hour or two of half-ass sex and snorting girl, Honey was zoned out. […] She flexed her still numb fingers, trying to find a warmth that didn't seem to come. Cocaine always made her numb.

    2005, K'wan, Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 185

    Catch me playing with the plate, yeah I love the sauce White girl in my nose, I need to clean it off

    2016 July 22, “Bussin” (track 3), in Fenix Flexin (lyrics), Shoreline Mafia (music), Party Pack

    Synonyms: benzoylmethylecgonine, blow, Bolivian marching powder, booger sugar, boots, California corn flakes, charlie, ching

12. countableslanguncommonuncountablecard gamesA queen (the playing card).

    Are your sure you want to discard that old girl?

13. UKcountabledialectalobsoleteuncountableA roebuck two years old.
14. countableobsoleteuncountableA child of any gender.

present singular third person girls · participle present girling · participle past girled · past girled · alternative colloquial gal · alternative colloquial guhl · alternative UK slang gel · alternative obsolete girle · alternative obsolete gyrle · alternative Internet gorl · alternative Internet gril · alternative slang grrrl · alternative slang grrl · alternative nonstandard guhrl · alternative nonstandard gurl · alternative slang gworl

1. transitiveTo feminize or girlify; to gender as a girl or as for girls.

   One can argue that the genre “yuppified” the popular romance novel or perhaps “girled” the not especially gender-specific concept of the young urban professional.

   2011, Stephanie Harzewski, Chick Lit and Postfeminism

   1 more example

   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.

   2005, Leerom Medovoi, Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity, page 293

2. informalTo staff with or as a girl or girls.

   She and her Altrurian diplomat husband, arriving there by sea, are greeted by flower-laden boats, each not manned, but girled by six rowers, who pulled as true a stroke as I ever saw.

   1986, Marcus Cunliffe, The Literature of the United States, New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   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 [...]

   1949, The New Yorker

   Her first shock came when the ship on which she and her husband arrived was met by three boats “girled” by “great, splendid creatures, as tall as our millionaires' tallest daughters, and as strong-looking as any of our college-girl athletes,” ...

   1961, The Georgia Review, volume 15, page 228

   To her disappointment, the chatty Carlene DuBois wasn't behind the desk; instead it was manned—or girled—by a frothy little blonde who barely looked old enough to be out of high school.

   2009, Linda Howard, Night Moves: Dream Man/After the Night, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 220

1. astronomyA Chinese constellation located near Aquarius, one of the 28 lunar mansions and part of the Black Turtle.

   1 more example

   Firstly, the ancient Chinese noticed that it is in the seventh lunar month of the year when the Ox mansion (牛宿, to which the Star of the Weaving Girl and the Cowherd star belong) and the Girl Mansion (女宿) both appear in the night sky: according to Book of Rites (《禮記》) edited by Confucius, the Girl Mansion culminate at dawn in the first month of summer, and the Ox Mansion culminate at dawn in the first month of autumn, as the latter is chasing the former.

   (Can we date this quote?), Yuxuan Cai, “DOUBLE SEVENTH FESTIVAL or 七(Qī)夕(Xì)七(Qī)巧(Qiǎo)如(Rú)意(Yì)果(Guǒ) (V, GF)”, in Yuxuan Cai, editor, Chinese Street Market (Blog), archived from the original on 25 Feb 2024