surcingle

/ˈsɜːsɪŋɡ(ə)l/US/ˈsɜɹˌsɪŋ.ɡəl/

surcingle noun: a long unpadded strap to pass over and keep in place a blanket, pack or saddle on an animal.

Noun

surcingle (plural surcingles)

A long unpadded strap to pass over and keep in place a blanket, pack or saddle on an animal.
- He was standing on the offside of his horse, holding up the flap of his saddle, with the surcingle loosened, and was pointing to the girths. Close to their attachment to the saddle they had been almost cut through with a knife.1929, Baldwyn Dyke Acland, chapter 8, in Filibuster
A piece of tack wrapped around the belly of a horse, to use when longeing.

Synonyms:

roller
A girdle to fasten a garment, especially a cassock.

surcingle (third-person singular simple present surcingles, present participle surcingling, simple past and past participle surcingled)

Noun
plural	surcingles
Verb
third-person singular present	surcingles
present participle	surcingling
past participle	surcingled
past	surcingled

From Old French surcengle, formed with sur (“over”) and cengle (“girdle”).

What does surcingle mean?: Surcingle means a long unpadded strap to pass over and keep in place a blanket, pack or saddle on an animal.
What part of speech is surcingle?: Surcingle can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce surcingle?: Surcingle is pronounced /ˈsɜːsɪŋɡ(ə)l/ (UK).
What is the plural of surcingle?: The plural of surcingle is surcingles.

Adapted from Wiktionary: surcingle (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: 2026-09-02

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

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