yard

plural yards · alternative Scotland obsolete yaird · alternative archaic yeard · alternative obsolete yerd · alternative pronunciation spelling yod

1. A small, usually uncultivated area adjoining or (now especially) within the precincts of a house or other building.

   'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

2. AustraliaCanadaUSThe property surrounding one's house, typically dominated by one's lawn.

   Synonyms: garden

3. An enclosed outdoors area designated for a specific purpose, e.g. on farms, railways etc.

   A little further on, to the right, was a large garage, where the charabancs stood, half in and half out of the yard.

   1931, Francis Beeding, “2/2”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps

   1 more example

   Pilton Yard, the Lynton & Barnstaple headquarters, has been taken over by a fur trading firm, and would-be trespassers to the old engine-shed are turned back by the pungent odour of heaps of carcases.

   1951 February, “Notes and News: Lynton & Barnstaple Remains”, in Railway Magazine, page 136

4. A place where moose or deer herd together in winter for pasture, protection, etc.
5. JamaicaMulticultural London EnglishOne’s house or home.

   Man’s devilish cunt, tell me nutting about friends, that’s dead Cuz I run up in yards, No vest, tryna ching man’s chest And leave him dead

   2020 December 15, “We Paid (Remix)”, performed by #GS28 Goose, 0:15–0:21

present singular third person yards · participle present yarding · participle past yarded · past yarded · alternative Scotland obsolete yaird · alternative archaic yeard · alternative obsolete yerd · alternative pronunciation spelling yod

1. transitiveTo confine to a yard.

   As they reached the door, Bose, having yarded the cows, was stealing around the corner of the pig-sty, and making for the woods.

   1893, Elijah Kellogg, Good old times, or, Grandfather's struggles for a homestead

   1 more example

   The sheep were straggling in a manner that meant walking work to round them, and he supposed he would have to yard them tonight, if she didn't liven up.

   1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 14

plural yards · alternative Scotland obsolete yaird · alternative archaic yeard · alternative obsolete yerd · alternative pronunciation spelling yod

1. A unit of length equal to 3 feet in the US customary and British imperial systems of measurement, equal to precisely 0.9144 m since 1959 (US) or 1963 (UK).

   1 more example

   Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’[…].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   1. abbreviationellipsisinformalEllipsis of square yard, a unit of area; common with textiles.

      Synonyms: virgate, rood

   2. abbreviationellipsisinformalEllipsis of cubic yard, a unit of volume; common in mining and earthmoving.
2. Units of similar composition or length in other systems.
3. nauticalAny spar carried aloft.
   1. nauticalA long tapered timber hung on a mast to which is bent a sail, and may be further qualified as a square, lateen, or lug yard. The first is hung at right angles to the mast, the last two hang obliquely.
4. obsoleteA branch, twig, or shoot.
5. obsoleteA staff, rod, or stick.
6. obsoleteA penis.

   Loues her by the foot. Dum. He may not by the yard.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]

   2 more examples

   there were some people found who tooke pleasure to unhood the end of their yard, and to cut off the fore-skinne after the manner of the Mahometans and Jewes[…].

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   [T]he testicles are quite exposed, but they wrap a piece of cloth or leafe round the yard which they tye up to the belly to a cord or bandage which they wear round the waist just under the short ribbs and over the belly and so tight that it was a wonder to us how they could endure it.

   1774, James Cook, The Journals, Second Voyage, 23 July

7. USslanguncommon100 dollars.
8. obsoleteThe yardland, an obsolete English unit of land roughly understood as 30 acres.

   You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land.

   a. 1634, W. Noye, The Complete Lawyer, section 57

9. obsoleteThe rod, a surveying unit of (once) 15 or (now) 16+¹⁄₂ feet.

   Synonyms: rod

10. obsoleteThe rood, area bound by a square rod, ¹⁄₄ acre.
11. obsolete outside of fossil formsA tall, slender, hollow receptacle or tool.

present singular third person yards · participle present yarding · participle past yarded · past yarded · alternative Scotland obsolete yaird · alternative archaic yeard · alternative obsolete yerd · alternative pronunciation spelling yod

1. humorousintransitiveTo move a yard at a time, as opposed to inching along.

   He inched his way up the corridor as if he would rather be yarding his way down it, which was true.

   1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 62

plural yards · alternative Scotland obsolete yaird · alternative archaic yeard · alternative obsolete yerd · alternative pronunciation spelling yod

1. business10⁹, A short scale billion; a long scale thousand millions or milliard.

   I need to hedge a yard of yen.

2. slangdrugsOne hundred, usually referring to currency or money's worth.

   How much coke you want? Gimme a yard.

1. Scotland Yard or New Scotland Yard

   'Suppose we walk across to Scotland Yard, and you can tell me on the way.' At the corner of Derby Street they encountered two men who had just turned out of the Yard.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

2. figurativelymetonymicallyThe Metropolitan Police Service
3. JamaicaJamaica
4. A surname.