overgird

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.

   1996, Shirley Jean Schwarz, Greek vases in the National Museum of Natural History, page 5

present singular third person overgirds · participle present overgirding · participle past overgirded · past overgirded · participle past overgirt · past overgirt

1. transitiveTo gird too closely.

   The flaw with Locke's model is that his identification of black aestheticism was overgirded by the ferment of a single historical moment.

   1995, College Language Association (U.S.), CLA Journal - Volume 39, page 258

   2 more examples

   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.

   1642, John Milton, The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty

   Perhaps the most important thing to remember, however, is don't overgird. Girding one's loins too tightly can lead to loss of circulation and, in extreme cases, loss of a loin.

   1979, Donald Kaul, The End of the World as We Know it ... and Other Entertainments, page 91

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.

   1916, George Henry Chase, Catalogue of Arretine Pottery, page 29

   2 more examples

   Does swaddling figure in cultural adaptations, such as martial armor (cumbersome, ineffectual), and more irenic transformations, such as the monastic robes (overgirding otherwise scratchy hair-shirts or prickly girdles) and veils, turbans, and wimples among religious that set off the body as inviolable space?

   2017, Daniel Dervin, The Digital Child

   The pitch some fathoms below is bathed in the blue light provided by the elephantine fluorescent tubing that overgirds our fine stadium .

   2020, Mark Blacklock, Hinton

3. To encapsulate; to encompass and bind together.

   Well, that is the leitmotif that sort of overgirds this entire series of hearings, and the question is what do we do about it.

   1989, United States. Congress. Joint Economic Committee. Subcommittee on Education and Health, The Future of Health Care in America, page 693

   5 more examples

   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.

   1861, Charles Frederic Hudson, Debt and Grace: As Related to the Doctrine of a Future Life, page 359

   In addition, come the effects and impacts of various overgirding social institutions and social facts such as culture and language.

   2000, Andy Sloane, Felix van Rijn, Home Informatics and Telematics, page 64

   They emphasized a return to the “essence of Judaism," expressed by pure humanity, which was to overgird the dialectic between the maintenance of Jewish identity and universalism.

   2002, Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts - Volume 1, page 299

   Master of the teachable moment, as soon as he opens his mouth to speak and teach, we are spellbound by his words, his ways of interweaving the diverse strands of his vast knowledge, the profundity of his insights, and the passionate moral commitments that undergird and overgird his intellect

   2009, Steven L. Jacobs, Maven in Blue Jeans, page 2

   Plastic surgery's remaking of the body demonstrates the dehumanized status of those subjects trapped within the systems which overgird the world.

   2013, Shawn Smith, Pynchon and History, page 51

plural overgirds

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.

   1993, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, DOE Contract Management, page 93