This week's theme
Homonyms

This week's words
quiff
gird
mew
feral
bole

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(guhrd)

MEANING:

verb tr.:
1. To encircle or bind with a belt or band.
2. To surround.
3. To prepare for action (especially as "to gird one's loins").

verb tr., intr.: 4. To jeer.
noun: 5. A sarcastic remark.

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1-3: From Old English gyrdan. Ultimately from the Indo-European root gher- (to enclose or grasp), which is also the source of such words as orchard, kindergarten, court, choir, courteous, French jardin (garden), Hindi gherna (to surround), yard, horticulture, curtilage, and garth. Earliest documented use: 950.
For 4-5: From Middle English girden, to strike. Earliest documented use: 1275.

USAGE:

"Metallic rings girded the weapon's shaft."
Greg Cox; Star Trek: The Weight of Worlds; Simon & Schuster; 2013.

"Both sides have been unwilling to compromise, and their supporters appear to be girding for more violence by forming militias and armed gangs."
Thailand at the Brink; The New York Times; Feb 27, 2014.

"Falstaff: Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me: the brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent any thing that tends to laughter."
William Shakespeare; Henry IV.

See more usage examples of gird in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: