girdling

Verb

girdle (third-person singular simple present girdles, present participle girdling, simple past and past participle girdled)

1. (transitive) To gird, encircle, or constrain by such means.
   • The Equator, as everyone knows, is an imaginary line or circle girdling the Earth half-way between the North and South poles.1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning, page 36
2. (transitive) To kill or stunt a tree by removing or inverting a ring of bark.
   • The ordinary large reddish "hen hawks," which circle high above meadows, are doing great good to the farmer by feeding upon the mice and other creatures which steal his grain and girdle his trees.1911, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, 24th edition, published 1939, page 108

See all 9 meanings of girdle