c1000 West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) (Corpus Cambr.) iii. 4 Se iohannes witodlice hæfde reaf of olfende hærum & fellenne gyrdel [c1160 Hatton Gosp. gerdel] embe hys lendenu.

c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 3210 Hiss girrdell wass off shepess skinn Abutenn hise lendess.

c1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 58/150 In stude of is gurdel al-so; with rope he him bond.

1340 Ayenbite (1866) 236 Þe gerdel aboue be-tocneþ chastete of bodie.

c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Miller's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 64 By hir girdel heeng a purs of lether.

1463 in S. Tymms Wills & Inventories Bury St. Edmunds (1850) 16 My girdyl of ledir barryd with siluir with bokyll and pendaunth.

1525 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles II. xlviii. 167 Gyrdelles of chaynes of golde and syluer.

1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres v. 143 A purse at his girdle, with bullets, and his other necessaries.

1619 Boyle in Lismore Papers (1886) I. 216 I paid my cozen..for an embroydered girdle and Hangers.

1709 R. Steele & J. Addison Tatler No. 147. ⁋ 3 This Cestus was a fine Party-coloured Girdle.

1749 T. Nugent Grand Tour III. 103 The Venetian nobility..wear also a black girdle about four fingers broad, and garnished with plates and buckles of silver.

1819 P. B. Shelley Cenci v. iv. 104 Here, Mother, tie My girdle for me, and bind up this hair.

1863 ‘G. Eliot’ Romola I. xx. 330 Her white silk garment was bound by a golden girdle.

1881 B. Jowett tr. Thucydides Hist. Peloponnesian War I. 5 The combatants at boxing and wrestling matches wear girdles.

1890 Draper's Circular Girdles are being used for all sorts and conditions of dresses for day wear.

1519 in W. L. Nash Churchwardens' Acct. Bk. St. Giles, Reading (1851) 7 For frankensence ed iiij girdles iiij^d.

1566 in E. Peacock Eng. Church Furnit. (1866) 49 ij vestementes..a girdell a fruntall and 3 albes.

1866 J. Purchas & F. G. Lee Directorium Anglicanum (ed. 3) 354 Girdle, the cord that girds the alb, usually made of white cotton about three yards long.

a1400–50 Alexander 181 Bot gefe þaim vp þe girdill vs gaynes noȝt ellis.

a1400–50 Alexander 758 And oþir recouyre me þi rewme or reche vp þe girdill.

1541 R. Barnes Wks. (1573) 203/2 If hee bee in Rome, and hath all Princes neckes vnder hys gyrdell.

a1550 in R. Dyboski Songs, Carols & Other Misc. Poems (1908) 129 All the keis hange not bi on mannis girdill.

a1556 N. Udall Ralph Roister Doister (?1566) iii. iii. sig. E.ij Neare an M by your girdle?

1598 R. Bernard tr. Terence Andria i. i, in Terence in Eng. 11 Iwis it is not long hence I must liue after an others pleasure, with my head vnder anothers girdle.

1599 H. Porter Pleasant Hist. Two Angrie Women of Abington sig. I4 I know you are as good a man..as was ere girt in a girdle.

1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing v. i. 141 Prince I thinke he be angry indeed. Claud. If he be, he knowes how to turne his girdle . View more context for this quotation

1617 J. Woodall Surgions Mate Pref. sig. ¶¶^v In whose opinions they onely haue the keyes of Art at their girdles.

1660 R. Burney Κέρδιστον Δῶρον 80 He is curst in his Mothers Belly that would over-top such Princes, and bring their heads under his Girdle.

1668 S. Pepys Diary 14 Feb. (1976) IX. 71 Thereby [by allowing £70,000 a year for ‘intelligence’] Cromwell carried the secret of all the princes of Europ at his girdle.

1706 Fowler in T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. 20 Jan. (O.H.S.) I. 166 He depended upon none, and..would not be under any one's Girdle.

1802 F. W. Blagdon tr. P. S. Pallas Trav. Southern Provinces Russ. Empire I. 399 Their girls..are provided with laced stays, or a broad girdle made of untanned leather: this singular coat of mail is among the common people tightly sewed round the waist, but in the higher classes it is fastened with silver hooks, so that they are obliged to wear it till their wedding-night... Besides the girdle of chastity above mentioned there is another circumstance which contributes to preserve the elegant shape of the girls: they are sparingly nourished.

1858 T. P. Thompson Audi Alteram Partem (1859) II. lxxvii. 31 A leader who carries half the Scottish Church under his girdle.

1925 Eaton's News Weekly 24 Oct. 19 Brassiere of rayon jersey silk and girdle of mercerized cotton and silk brocade with panels of elastic.

1928 Delineator Mar. 109 (advt.) Girdle.

1932 Daily Mail 3 Oct. 10/1 A two-way stretch elastic girdle.

1942 D. Powell Time to be Born (1943) xi. 266 Go out and get yourself a girdle.

1957 H. Roosenburg Walls came tumbling Down 14 The girdle certainly didn't support her kidneys; it flapped..loosely around her.

1963 Punch 20 Mar. 426/3 His elevation from girdle ads to the glossies.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 664 Þe merminnen þat beoð deor of muchele ginnen. wifmen hit þunchet fuliwis bi-neoðe þon gurdle [c1300 Otho gurdel] hit þuncheð fisc.

13.. K. Alis. 6449 Eren they haveth an ellen long, That byneothe theo gurdel hit hongith.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection i. sig. Bi^v A persone setyng in the trone of god, which from the gyrdell downwarde was al lyke fyer.

1624 Ld. Keeper J. Williams in S. R. Gardiner Fortescue Papers (1871) 203 And allreadye up to the gyrdle in his grave.

1632 T. E. Lawes Womens Rights 315 It was greater shame to strike vnder the girdle than it is now.

1691 J. Hartcliffe Treat. Virtues 75 It was a favourable and merry Conceit of a Cardinal of Rome, that there was no Law beneath the Girdle.

a1734 R. North Lives of Norths (1826) I. 124 This great man..married his own servant maid and then for excuse, said there was no wisdom below the girdle.

1607 ‘W. S.’ Puritaine iii. 38 Ere the day Be spent to th' Girdle, thou shalt be set free.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. xi. 291 The atmosphere cleared, and showed the mountains clothed to their girdles with snow.

c1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 260 We hataþ on leden quinque zonas, ðæt synd fif gyrdlas.

1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 63 Five..zones..we may aptly call them equidistant places, or Girdles.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) Prol. 19 Suppose within the Girdle of these Walls Are now confin'd two mightie Monarchies. View more context for this quotation

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §398 The Great Brizes, which the Motion of the Aire in great Circles, (such as are vnder the Girdle of the World) produceth.

1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 416 The Rhiphean Mountains encompass them..which..they call the Girdle of their Land.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 59 Five Girdles bind the Skies, the torrid Zone Glows with the passing and repassing Sun. View more context for this quotation

c1700 J. Lawson in Harper's Mag. (1883) Feb. 419/1 A delicious country..placed in that girdle of the world which affords wine, oil, fruit.

1781 W. Cowper Expostulation 20 The billows roll, From the world's girdle to the frozen pole.

1781 W. Cowper Charity 86 Trade is the golden girdle of the globe.

1832 W. Macgillivray Trav. & Researches A. von Humboldt xvii. 219 The horizon was bounded by a girdle of forests.

1847 H. Miller First Impressions Eng. viii. 146 The quick, smart patter of hammers sounds incessantly, in one encircling girdle of din.

1875 C. Merivale Gen. Hist. Rome i. 5 The Palatine hill..the first nucleus of the Roman Empire, lay in the centre of a girdle of eminences.

1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul I. vi. xxiii. 415 Among good and holy men love would still be the girdle of perfectness.

1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream ii. i. 175 Ile put a girdle, round about the earth, in forty minutes. View more context for this quotation

1612 T. Dekker If it be not Good sig. C2^v About the world My trauailes make a girdle.

1621 T. Middleton Sunne in Aries sig. B^v Sir Francis Drake..did cast a Girdle about the world.

c1626 Dick of Devonshire (1955) 873 They would have thought themselves as famous as their Countryman that putt a girdle round about y^e world.

a1630 Faithful Friends (1975) iv. iv. 2674 To all thy thoughts, thy wishes and thyne actions no power shall put a girdle.

1641 J. Jackson True Evangelical Temper i. 38 The sixt Persecution..[was] limited..to a short time, (for it was precinct with a triennial girdle).

1645 J. Milton Tetrachordon 53 But suppose it any way possible to limit sinne, to put a girdle about that Chaos.

1833 I. Taylor Fanaticism vi. 193 The iron girdle of a solemn and irrevocable oath.

1548 W. Turner Names of Herbes sig. C.iij Cingulum..maye be named in englishe, fysshers gyrdle or sea gyrdel.

1551 W. Turner New Herball sig. K iv^v Ther is a certayne kynde of sewrake with a brode leafe, of a grene color, to the whyche sum geue the name of a leeke, other call this gyrdell.

1601 in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ. (1790) 296 The cheife clerke of the kitchen hath for his fee all the girdles of fresh sturgeon spent within the house.

1634 T. Johnson tr. A. Paré Chirurg. Wks. iii. i. 86 Vnder the region of the navell, lies the girdle or upper part of the kall.

1712 Philos. Trans. 1710–12 (Royal Soc.) 27 352 The last is very like our English Hedge Snail, but without Girdles, and has a small Navel.

1831 R. Knox tr. H. Cloquet Syst. Human Anat. (ed. 2) 109 As a powerful bony girdle, it [the pelvis] affords articulation to the abdominal extremities.

1861 R. T. Hulme tr. C. H. Moquin-Tandon Elements Med. Zool. ii. iii. iv. 138 When a leech is impregnated, an enlargement takes place around the sexual apertures, which has received the name of the girdle or clitellum.

1883 H. N. Martin & W. A. Moale Handbk. Vertebr. Dissect. ii. 119 The Shoulder Girdle is made up of a coracoid, clavicle, and scapula on each side.

1883 H. N. Martin & W. A. Moale Handbk. Vertebr. Dissect. ii. 122 The Pelvic Girdle is composed of the ilium, ischium, and os pubis on each side.

1891 Science (N.Y.) 21 Aug. 107/2 The fins, girdles, gill arches, scales, and membrane bones are all imperfectly developed or wanting [in eels].

1819 A. Rees Cycl. XVI Girdle, among Jewellers, the line which encompasses the stone parallel to the horizon; or which determines the greatest horizontal expansion of the stones.

1861 Macmillan's Mag. 3 184/2 The rim where the setting takes hold, or, as we have described it, the junction of the bases of the pyramids, is called the girdle.

1883 A. H. Church Precious Stones iii. 21 The ‘girdle’ or edge bounding the widest part of the stone, divides the crown from the base, and is concealed in part..by the mounting or setting.

1699 A. Boyer Royal Dict. at Ceinture The Cincture, or Girdle of a Pillar.

1738 E. Chambers Cycl. (ed. 2) at Cincture The word, in its original, French, signifies girdle.

1842 G. W. Francis Dict. Arts Girdle, a small circular band around the shaft of a column.

1819 A. Rees Cycl. XVI Girdle, in Mining, is the name used in Cumberland, and some other counties, to denote the uncertain strata, or chance beds, of stone or different substances that are met with in some districts.

1893 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Girdles, in mining, are beds from about three inches to two feet or more in thickness; but the term is usually applied to beds varying from three inches to nine or ten inches thick.

1875 A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. von Sachs Text-bk. Bot. 368 When the growth is normal..the three segments which form a cycle always become arranged into a disc transverse to the stem, their outer surfaces thus forming an annular zone or girdle.

1884 F. O. Bower & D. H. Scott tr. H. A. de Bary Compar. Anat. Phanerogams & Ferns 381 The border of tracheides of each leaf is expanded into a low wing, which runs to meet that of the opposite leaf, and unites with it to form a transverse girdle.

1825 J. Lorain Nature in Pract. Husb. 63 All of them eventually die, provided the girdle be carefully cut through the sap into the heart-wood of the tree.

1896 P. A. Bruce Econ. Hist. Virginia I. 150 The method employed by the Indians for the removal of the forest..consists in running a girdle around the trunks of the largest trees by cutting away the bark..the object of this being to intercept the flow of the sap.

1897 L. H. Bailey Princ. Fruit-growing 289 Fig. 45 shows a deposit of woody matter above a girdle caused by a label wire.

1810 R. Southey Curse of Kehama xiv. 149 The sweet music of their girdle-bells.

1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis ix, in tr. Virgil Wks. 478 Nor did his [sc. Euryalus'] Eyes less longingly behold The Girdle-Belt, with Nails of burnish'd Gold.

1790 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 207/1 A girdle-buckle about the bigness of a crown-piece was also dug up.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Girdle compasse, or in the compasse, or wyth the compasse of a gyrdle, zotim [? read zonatim].

14.. in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 686/20 Hic corrigiarius, gyrdil-maker.

1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. III. 521 The ulcer [of the stomach] is..occasionally, if of very long-standing, girdle-shaped.

1582 N. Lichefield tr. F. L. de Castanheda 1st Bk. Hist. Discouerie E. Indias xv. 39 Silke..even such wherewith he was accustomed to girdle himselfe.

1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres vi. 184 There is set down..how many shot will girdle or impale the battell of pikes.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) iv. i. 2 O thou Wall That girdles in those Wolues, diue in the earth, And fence not Athens. View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) iv. iii. 20 Spurre to the rescue of the Noble Talbot, Who now is girdled with a waste of Iron, And hem'd about with grim destruction. View more context for this quotation

1635 W. Barriffe Mil. Discipline ciii. 286 The Hollow Square Girdled with shot, is a Figure to be used at such times of necessity.

1712 J. James tr. A.-J. Dézallier d'Argenville Theory & Pract. Gardening 196 Wooden Pipes..are ferriled and girdled with Iron.

a1782 W. Cowper Heroism 6 No thunders shook with deep intestine sound The blooming groves that girdled her around.

1808 W. Scott Marmion ii. ix. 86 The tide did now its flood-mark gain, And girdled in the Saint's domain.

1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. xi. 199 The bright and velvet lawn closely girdling the grey base of the mansion.

1858 N. Hawthorne Jrnl. 10 May in French & Ital. Notebks. (1980) iv. 212 Far in the distance, the blue hills that girdle in the Campagna of Rome.

1871 F. W. Farrar Witness of Hist. ii. 55 Let us mark how the hills that girdle them are scattered with the ruined enginery of assaults.

1888 A. Meynell in Art Jrnl. LI. 139/2 A tea-gown, waistless, and girdled low down.

1901 F. H. Burnett Making of Marchioness ii. vi. 180 Agatha Norman, at present joyously girdling the globe with her bridegroom.

1662 J. Winthrop Acct. making Tar & Pitch New Eng. in T. Birch Hist. Royal Soc. (1756) I. 101 Several trials have been made..by girdling the tree (as they call it) cutting off some of the bark round, and a little into the wood of the tree, about six feet from the ground.

1767 Bartram's Jrnl. 65 in W. Stork Acct. E. Florida (ed. 2) There still remain..great trees girdled round to kill them, which are now very sound, tho' above 60 years since they were cut.

1792 J. Belknap Hist. New-Hampsh. III. 211 If the trees were girdled and left to die standing, the timber would be much superior to any which is cut whilst alive.

a1817 T. Dwight Trav. New-Eng. & N.-Y. (1821) II. 459 They accordingly cut down some trees, and girdle others.

1871 H. Macmillan True Vine (1872) v. 212 The barren branch is girdled or ringed—that is, a narrow strip of its bark is removed all round the branch.

1897 L. H. Bailey Princ. Fruit-growing 288 Trees which are girdled should have the injured parts pared down to live tissue.

1883 B. G. Wilder & S. H. Gage Anat. Technol. 197 When the skin, especially of a limb, is divided by an incision encircling the part, the latter is said to be girdled.