Girdle /(?)/

Gir·dle

Girdle

n.
  1. A griddle. [Scot. & Prov. Eng.]

Girdle

n.
  1. That which girds, encircles, or incloses; a circumference; a belt; esp., a belt, sash, or article of dress encircling the body usually at the waist; a cestus.
    Within the girdle of these walls.
    Their breasts girded with golden girdles.
    — Rev. xv. 6.
  2. The zodiac; also, the equator. [Poetic]
    From the world's girdle to the frozen pole.
    That gems the starry girdle of the year.
    — Campbell.
  3. The line ofgreatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting. See Illust. of Brilliant. (Jewelry)
  4. A thin bed or stratum of stone. (Mining)
  5. The clitellus of an earthworm. (Zool.)

Phrases & Compounds
Girdle bone
the sphenethmoid. See under Sphenethmoid.
Girdle wheel
a spinning wheel.
Sea girdle
a ctenophore. See Venus's girdle, under Venus.
Shoulder, Pectoral, & Pelvic, girdle
See under Pectoral, and Pelvic.
To have under the girdle
to have bound to one, that is, in subjection.

Girdle

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Girdled; p. pr. & vb. n. Girdling

  1. To bind with a belt or sash; to gird.
  2. To inclose; to environ; to shut in.
    Those sleeping stones, That as a waist doth girdle you about.
  3. To make a cut or gnaw a groove around (a tree, etc.) through the bark and alburnum, thus killing it. [U. S.]