Word.ws English Dictionary

gird

UK/ɡɜːd//ɡɝd/

gird verb: to bind with a flexible rope or cord.

gird: to bind with a flexible rope or cord
Image: sailko, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

gird (third-person singular simple present girds, present participle girding, simple past and past participle girded or girt)

  1. (transitive) To bind with a flexible rope or cord.
    • The fasces were girt about with twine in bundles large.
    • We heere create thee the firſt Duke of Suffolke, / And girt thee with the Sword. Coſin of Yorke1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (transitive) To encircle with, or as if with a belt.
    • a castle girded with a moat
    • The lady girt herself with silver chain, from which she hung a golden shear.
    Synonyms:
    girdle
  3. (reflexive, transitive) To prepare (oneself) for an action.
    • Associate your selues, O ye people, and yee shalbe broken in pieces; and giue eare all ye of farre countreys: gird your selues, and ye shalbe broken in pieces; gird your selues, and ye shalbe broken in pieces.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 8:9
    • The poet is not trying to conform to any of the old standards of behavior. She is instead focusing her rage and girding herself for battle.1979 December 15, Stephanie Byrd, “An Injection of Spirit”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 21, page 10
  4. (intransitive) (of a vessel towing another) To be pulled on sideways by its towline, putting it at risk of capsizing.
    • On 19 July 2009, the tug North Arm Venture was towing the barge North Arm Express, loaded with fuel and deck cargo, from Toba Inlet to Sechelt Inlet. The tug girded and capsized at approximately 1250 Pacific Daylight Time while making a turn to port at the entrance to Sechelt Rapids .... Girding is...2010, Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Marine Investigation Report M09W0141

Noun

gird (plural girds)

  1. A sarcastic remark.
    • I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. A stroke with a rod or switch.
  3. A severe spasm; a twinge; a pang.
    • Conscience […] is freed from many fearful girds and twinges which the atheist feels.1671, John Tillotson, “Sermon II. The Folly of Scoffing at Religion. 2 Pet[er] III. 3.”, in The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: […], London: […] B....

Verb (2)

gird (third-person singular simple present girds, present participle girding, simple past and past participle girded)

  1. (transitive) To jeer at.
    • Being moved, he will not spare to gird the gods.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Synonyms:
    flout, jibe, fleer, jeer, scoff, scorn
  2. (intransitive) To jeer.
    • Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...

gird meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

gird in Tamil

கயிறு, வடம், கச்சை முதலியவற்றால் சுற்றிக் கட்டு, சுற்றிவளை, ஒன்றைச் செய்யத் தயாராகு, வலிமையூட்டு

gird in Urdu

گھیراؤ کرنا, حلقے میں لینا, کمر بند باندھنا

gird in Bengali

ঘিরে ফেলা, কোমর বাঁধা, নিজেকে প্রস্তুত করা

gird in Malayalam

belt, fasten, bind
ചുറ്റിക്കെട്ടുക, ചുറ്റുക, ഇറുക്കിക്കെട്ടുക, കെട്ടിയുറപ്പിക്കുക, അരപ്പട്ട കെട്ടുക, നിബന്ധിക്കുക
enclose, surround, encircle
ചുറ്റുക, ചൂഴുക, വലയംചെയ്യുക, ചുറ്റുമുണ്ടാകുക, ചുറ്റിയടയ്ക്കുക, വളച്ചുകെട്ടുക
prepare, get ready, gear up
അരമുറുക്കുക, അരക്കച്ചമുറുക്കുക, കച്ചകെട്ടുക, കോപ്പുകൂട്ടുക, കോപ്പിടുക, കാപ്പുകെട്ടുക
More languagesFewer languages
gird in Kannada
ಕಟ್ಟು, ಸುತ್ತು

Examples of gird in a sentence

  • Gird thy sword vpon thy thigh, O most mightie: with thy glory and thy maiestie.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 45:3:
  • He slithers like a limbo dancer under alder thickets girding the cliff faces.2026 February 27, Paul Salopek, “Hazard Cascade”, in National Geographic:
  • I girded myself for the sleaziest sites on the net, the kind that advertise the video of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee uncut, […]2000 April 15, Tanya Millbank, “The net addict”, in The Guardian:
  • The remarks came just days after Putin appeared to be girding Russians for a protracted war in Ukraine, saying that his military operation could be a “long-term process”.2022 December 9, Andrew Roth, “Putin suggests possibility of settlement to end war in Ukraine”, in The Guardian:

All 14 example sentences with gird

Synonyms of gird

All synonyms of gird

Forms of gird

Verb
third-person singular presentgirds
present participlegirding
past participlegirded
pastgirded
past participlegirt
pastgirt
Noun
pluralgirds

Past tense of gird: girded or girt

Origin of gird

From Middle English girden, gerden, gürden, from Old English gyrdan (“to put a belt around, to put a girdle around”), from Proto-Germanic *gurdijaną (“to gird”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ-. Cognate with West Frisian gurdzje, girdzje, Dutch gorden, German gürten, Swedish gjorda, Icelandic gyrða, Albanian ngërthej (“to tie together by weaving, to bind”).

From Middle English girden (“to strike”), from Old English *gyrdan.

Words formed from gird

Words that rhyme with gird

35 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gird

What does gird mean?
Gird means to bind with a flexible rope or cord.
What is gird in Tamil?
Gird in Tamil is கயிறு, வடம், கச்சை முதலியவற்றால் சுற்றிக் கட்டு. See Gird meaning in Tamil.
How do you use gird in a sentence?
Gird thy sword vpon thy thigh, O most mightie: with thy glory and thy maiestie.
What part of speech is gird?
Gird can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce gird?
Gird is pronounced /ɡɜːd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of gird?
The past tense of gird is girded.

Words near gird in the dictionary

  1. Girauds
  2. Girawa
  3. Girawan
  4. girbies
  5. girby
  6. gird
  7. gird one's loins
  8. gird up one's loins
  9. girded
  10. girded one's loins
  11. girded up one's loins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gird (page history and authors); gird (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gird (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Gird (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gird (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); gird (Kannada 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-gird.ogg.

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