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▪ I. girth, n.1|gɜːθ|
Forms: 4–5 gerth(e, (5 gerreth), 5–6 gyrth, 6 gurth, 4– girth. See also garth2, gird n.1, girr, girse, girt n.
[a. ON. (*gerðu) gjǫrð girdle, girth, hoop (Sw., Da. gjord) = Goth. gairda girdle:—OTeut. *gerdâ. To different grades of the same root (*gerd-, gard-, gurd-) belong garth1, gird v.1, girdle n.]
1. a. A belt or band of leather or cloth, placed round the body of a horse or other beast of burden and drawn tight, so as to secure a saddle, pack, etc. upon its back.
13..Coer de L. 5733 Brydyl and peytrel al to-brast Hys gerth, and hys stiropes alsoo. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. iv. 20 Sette my sadel vppon Suffre-til-I-se-my-tyme, And lete warrok it well with Witty-wordes gerthes. 1463Mann. & Househ. Exp. 227 Item, payd there for gyrthys and a hors⁓kombe, and for mendyng of a tronke sadylle, viij.d. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §142 Thymble, nedle, threde, point, lest yt thy gurth breke. 1580Sidney Arcadia i. (1590) 75 b, The saddle with broken girthes was driuen from the horse. 1602Segar Hon. Mil. & Civ. iii. xiv. 130 He who falleth by the default of his horse, the breaking of Girthes, or any such like accident. 1716Swift Progr. Poetry 29 The steed, oppress'd, would break his girth, To raise the lumber from the earth. 1787‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsemen (1809) 45 See that your girths are tight. 1841Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. 425 Rája Rúp Sing..running up to Aurangzib's elephant, began to cut away the girths with his sword. 1867M. E. Herbert Cradle L. viii. 206 One more vigorous kick, having cut the girths which held one of the saddles, the lady found herself suddenly under her steed.
b. to run (a horse) head and girth: to keep pace with in racing.
1809Brit. Press in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1810) XIII. 62 The mare ran him head and girth nearly the first half mile.
†c. (See quot.) Obs.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Girth.. a saddle that is buckled and compleat for use.
d. Printing. (See quot. 1823.)
1823Crabb Technol. Dict., Girth, leather thongs belonging to the carriage of a printing press, by which it is let in and out. 1841Savage Dict. Print., Girths..They are sometimes made of Girthweb. 1851–82in Ogilvie.
†2. A hoop of wood or iron, esp. for a barrel. Obs.
c1356Durham MS. Burs. Roll, Et in ccc girthes quer⁓culinis empt. pro cuvis et doleis in officio bracine, xvjs. a1400–50Alexander 5536 Þan gert he gomes for to gang, and grayth him a tonn Of grene glitterand glas with gerrethis of iren. 1483Cath. Angl. 157/1 A Gyrthe of a vesselle, instata (A.).
3. Measurement round the circumference of any object, of which the section is approximately circular, as the human body, the trunk of a tree, etc.
With quot. 1706 cf. garth2 3.
1644Evelyn Sylva xxix. 92 Then cleanse the Boal of the Branches which were left, and saw it into lengths for the squaring, to which belongs the Measure and Girth (as our Workmen call it) which I refer to the Buyer. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Girth,..a Term us'd by Cock-Masters, for the Compass of a Cock's Body. 1791Cowper Odyss. xxiii. 223 Within the court a leafy olive grew Lofty, luxuriant, pillar⁓like in girth. a1798Pennant Zool. (1812) III. 86 A fish..its length was twenty-four feet; but the girth did not exceed twelve. 1827H. Steuart Planter's G. (1828) 243 A strong but soft rope, of perhaps four inches in girth. 1869E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 521 There must also be a special girth of the chest. 1887Ruskin Præterita II. 403 Walnuts, with trunks eight or ten feet in girth.
4. Mining. (See quot., and cf. girt n. 2.)
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Girth, in square-set timbering, a horizontal brace in the direction of the drift.
5. transf. That part of a horse's body where the girth is fastened.
1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 413 The girth or brisket.
6. fig. Something that encircles.
1871J. Miller Songs Italy (1878) 36 The ripened fields drew round a golden girth. 1872Blackie Lays Highl. 10 His soul this self-same moment From the girth of purging fire Leaps redeemed. 1876Swinburne Erechth. 1442 That is girdled about with the round sea's girth As a town with its wall.
7. U.S. (See quots.)
1864Webster, Girth, a small horizontal beam [1890 brace] or girder. 1889Century Dict., Girth, in car-building, a long horizontal bracing-timber on the inside of the frame of a box-car.
8. attrib. and Comb., as girth-buckle, girth-groove, girth-strap; also girth-deep, girth-high adj., girth-galled ppl. a. (hence girth-gall vb.); † girth-sting, † -tree, a piece of wood suitable for making into hoops; girth-stretcher (see quot.). Cf. girt-buckle, -galled (girt n. 4); gird-sting (gird n.1 3).
1385–6Durham MS. Sacr. Roll, In tribus paribus de *Girthbokyls, vjd. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. iv, Back went the girth buckles with a ‘sneck’.
1882E. O'Donovan Merv Oasis I. 322 The horseman suddenly finds himself *girth-deep in a torrent.
1682Lond. Gaz. No. 1720/8 The other a bright Bay, no white but a slip on the off-side as if he had been *Girth-gall'd. 1897Cavalry Tactics ii. 11 Some horses are inclined to brush, others to girth gall.
1923C. Fox Archaeol. Cambr. Region iii. 92 Cineraries of hard paste with burnished *girth-grooves. 1950Oxoniensia XV. 48 A typical Oxford-style tripod-pitcher, with tubular spout and wavy applied vertical strips over rather irregular girth grooves.
1908Daily Chron. 29 Aug. 7/2 They rode *girth-high through the grass. 1936R. Campbell Mithraic Emblems 166 Girth-high, the poppies and the daisies To brush the belly of my mule.
1496in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1877) 282 Item, to that samyn man, for xxx and x *girthstingis viijs. ixd. 1534Aberd. Reg. XVI. 523 (Jam.) The balyes chargyt Robert Stewart pay Archd Stewart, &c. iiij lb. for 1. M. gyrchtstingis. Ibid. 656 Three hundreyth gyrthstingis.
1897Westm. Gaz. 8 Oct. 2/1 On the near [side] a latigo or *girth strap eight feet long is looped twice through the girth buckle.
1884Knight Mech. Dict. Suppl., *Girth-stretcher, a frame in which saddle-girths are suspended and held taut ‘to take the stretch out of them’, as it is called.
1344–5Durham MS. Burs. Roll, In *Girthetres emp. pro vas. Cellar. et Bracinæ, iiijs. vjd.
▪ II. girth, n.2
sanctuary, protection: see grith.
▪ III. girth, v.|gɜːθ|
[f. girth n.1]
1. trans. To gird, surround, encompass.
c1450Merlin 178 Ha now god yeve me grace to do so moche that he may me girthe with my swerde. 1513Douglas æneis xii. xiii. 49, I suld, gyrthit [L. cincta] with flambis reid Stowtly haue standyn in ȝon batale steid. 1535Coverdale Ezek. xvi. 9, I gyrthed y⊇ aboute with white sylcke, I clothed the with kerchues. 1819Scott Ivanhoe x, Within the four seas that girth Britain. 1848Lytton K. Arthur vii. lix, They whom the seas of fabled Sirens girth.
2. To fit or bind (a horse, etc.) with a girth.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Cengler vn cheval, to girthe a horse. 1687Miege Gt. Fr. Dict. ii, To Girth a Horse..You girth him too hard. 1835W. Irving Tour Prairies xxii, ‘For God's sake help me to girth this horse!’ cried another. 1898Speaker 1 Jan. 20/2 The horse is up and saddled: Girth the old horse tight.
3. To secure (a saddle, etc.) by means of a girth; also, to girth on, up.
1819Keats Otho iii. ii, O that..Thy girdle [were] some fine zealous-pained nerve To girth my saddle! 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxvii, The animals are led in and watered; they are bridled; the robes are thrown over them and girthed. 1866Froude Hist. Eng. IX. 43 Troopers were girthing up their saddles. 1875W. S. Hayward Love agst. World 93 Her saddle seemed loosely girthed on.
absol.1876J. Grant One of the 600 li. 428 When we halted to girth up I threw myself on the rich grass.
†4. (See quot.)
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 97/1 Girth it [a Stool or Chair], is to bottom it with Girth Webb stret drawn and crossed.
5. To draw (a string) close round a surface which is being measured. Also absol.
1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 544 Cornices are measured by girthing round the moulded parts. Ibid. 545 The measurer..girths round the string to the internal angle at the top of the string.
6. intr. To measure (so much) in girth.
1858Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIX. ii. 575 Some of the carrots girthed nearly 20 inches. 1868Ibid. Ser. ii. IV. ii. 288 He girthed 8 feet.
Hence ˈgirthed ppl. a., ˈgirthing vbl. n.
1805Scott Last Minstr. iii. vi, Down went the steed, the girthing broke. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxx. 207 Those which suspend themselves horizontally by means of a thread girthed round their middle. 1870Daily News 31 Aug. 2 This [new pack saddle] together with a new mode of girthing, professes to prevent the rolling motion which generally galls the backs of animals. |