Word.ws English Dictionary

garter

/ˈɡɑːtə/US/ˈɡɑːɹtɚ/

garter noun: a band worn around the leg to hold up a sock or stocking.

garter: a band worn around the leg to hold up a sock or stocking
Image: iluvrhinestones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

garter (plural garters)

  1. A band worn around the leg to hold up a sock or stocking.
  2. A bendlet.
  3. (Philippines) An elastic band encircling any article of clothing.
  4. (obsolete) One of a set of tapes stretched out horizontally for acrobats and equestrians to leap over as part of a circus act or display of skill.
    • GRAND TRAMPOLINE, by Mr KING, (from Astley's Amphitheatre, London) who will introduce a great variety of leaps. Somerset 1 - Somerset in the Air - while in that position lie will fire two pistols. Somerset 2 - Over garters 12 feet high.1842 November 11, The Hobart Town Advertiser, Tasmania, page 3, column 6
    • Mrs. Ashton will then make her entree in a beautiful act of equestrianism, entitled "The Mountain Maid," on a rapid courser, taking an aerial flight through hoops, and over garters, &c.1851 December 25, The Empire, Sydney, page 2, column 2

Verb

garter (third-person singular simple present garters, present participle gartering, simple past and past participle gartered)

  1. (transitive) to fasten with a garter
  2. (intransitive) To wear a garter
    • Lady Hester loathed the coarse, deluded and lecherous Princess Caroline, who showed off to Smith by 'dancing about, exposing herself, like an opera girl', and even gartering below the knee:2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 385

garter meaning in Malayalam and Tagalog

garter in Malayalam

കാലുറക്കെട്ട്, ഇംഗ്ലണ്ടിലെ ഒരു ഉത്കൃഷ്ട പദവിചിഹ്നം, പട്ട, ഒരുതരം മത്സ്യം

garter in Tagalog

band around leg
ligas

Examples of garter in a sentence

  • If you go out and play and get your clothes dirty, I'll have your guts for garters!
  • If you lay a finger on my little brother, I'll have your guts for garters.
  • Faux 19th-century bartenders in sleeve garters and baroque facial hair ply their trade in pre-Prohibition bars.

All 20 example sentences with garter

Forms of garter

Noun
pluralgarters
Verb
third-person singular presentgarters
present participlegartering
past participlegartered
pastgartered

Plural of garter: garters

Origin of garter

From Middle English garter, from Old Northern French gartier, from Old French garet (compare Old French jartier, from jaret), from Gaulish *garrā, from Proto-Celtic *garros (“calf, shank”) (compare Cornish gar, Cornish gar,Middle Welsh garr, Old Irish gairr). Cognate with French jarretière.

Words formed from garter

Phrases with garter

Words that rhyme with garter

Questions about garter

What does garter mean?
Garter means a band worn around the leg to hold up a sock or stocking.
What is garter in Malayalam?
Garter in Malayalam is കാലുറക്കെട്ട്, ഇംഗ്ലണ്ടിലെ ഒരു ഉത്കൃഷ്ട പദവിചിഹ്നം, പട്ട. See Garter meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is garter?
Garter can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce garter?
Garter is pronounced /ˈɡɑːtə/ (UK).
What is the plural of garter?
The plural of garter is garters.

Words near garter in the dictionary

  1. gart
  2. gartanin
  3. Gartcosh
  4. gartel
  5. gartels
  6. garter
  7. garter belt
  8. garter belts
  9. garter snake
  10. garter snakes
  11. garter stitch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: garter (page history and authors); garter (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-garter.wav.

Cite this entry: “garter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/garter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.