▪ 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. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. iv. 20 Sette my sadel vppon Suffre-til-I-se-my-tyme, And lete warrok it well with Witty-wordes gerthes. 1463 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 227 Item, payd there for gyrthys and a hors⁓kombe, and for mendyng of a tronke sadylle, viij.d. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §142 Thymble, nedle, threde, point, lest y{supt} thy gurth breke. 1580 Sidney Arcadia i. (1590) 75 b, The saddle with broken girthes was driuen from the horse. 1602 Segar Hon. Mil. & Civ. iii. xiv. 130 He who falleth by the default of his horse, the breaking of Girthes, or any such like accident. 1716 Swift 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. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. 425 Rája R{uacu}p Sing..running up to Aurangzib's elephant, began to cut away the girths with his sword. 1867 M. 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.
| 1809 Brit. Press in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1810) XIII. 62 The mare ran him head and girth nearly the first half mile. |
† c. (See
quot.)
Obs.| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Girth.. a saddle that is buckled and compleat for use. |
d. Printing. (See
quot. 1823.)
| 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Girth, leather thongs belonging to the carriage of a printing press, by which it is let in and out. 1841 Savage Dict. Print., Girths..They are sometimes made of Girthweb. 1851–82 in Ogilvie. |
† 2. A hoop of wood or iron,
esp. for a barrel.
Obs.| c 1356 Durham MS. Burs. Roll, Et in ccc girthes quer⁓culinis empt. pro cuvis et doleis in officio bracine, xvjs. a 1400–50 Alexander 5536 Þan gert he gomes for to gang, and grayth him a tonn Of grene glitterand glas with gerrethis of iren. 1483 Cath. 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.
| 1644 Evelyn 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. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Girth,..a Term us'd by Cock-Masters, for the Compass of a Cock's Body. 1791 Cowper Odyss. xxiii. 223 Within the court a leafy olive grew Lofty, luxuriant, pillar⁓like in girth. a 1798 Pennant Zool. (1812) III. 86 A fish..its length was twenty-four feet; but the girth did not exceed twelve. 1827 H. Steuart Planter's G. (1828) 243 A strong but soft rope, of perhaps four inches in girth. 1869 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 521 There must also be a special girth of the chest. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. 403 Walnuts, with trunks eight or ten feet in girth. |
4. Mining. (See
quot., and
cf. girt n. 2.)
| 1881 Raymond 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.
| 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 413 The girth or brisket. |
6. fig. Something that encircles.
| 1871 J. Miller Songs Italy (1878) 36 The ripened fields drew round a golden girth. 1872 Blackie Lays Highl. 10 His soul this self-same moment From the girth of purging fire Leaps redeemed. 1876 Swinburne Erechth. 1442 That is girdled about with the round sea's girth As a town with its wall. |
7. U.S. (See
quots.)
| 1864 Webster, Girth, a small horizontal beam [1890 brace] or girder. 1889 Century 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).
| 1385–6 Durham MS. Sacr. Roll, In tribus paribus de *Girthbokyls, vjd. 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. iv, Back went the girth buckles with a ‘sneck’. |
| 1882 E. O'Donovan Merv Oasis I. 322 The horseman suddenly finds himself *girth-deep in a torrent. |
| 1682 Lond. 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. 1897 Cavalry Tactics ii. 11 Some horses are inclined to brush, others to girth gall. |
| 1923 C. Fox Archaeol. Cambr. Region iii. 92 Cineraries of hard paste with burnished *girth-grooves. 1950 Oxoniensia XV. 48 A typical Oxford-style tripod-pitcher, with tubular spout and wavy applied vertical strips over rather irregular girth grooves. |
| 1908 Daily Chron. 29 Aug. 7/2 They rode *girth-high through the grass. 1936 R. Campbell Mithraic Emblems 166 Girth-high, the poppies and the daisies To brush the belly of my mule. |
| 1496 in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1877) 282 Item, to that samyn man, for xxx and x *girthstingis viijs. ixd. 1534 Aberd. Reg. XVI. 523 (Jam.) The balyes chargyt Robert Stewart pay Arch{supd} Stewart, &c. iiij lb. for 1. M. gyrchtstingis. Ibid. 656 Three hundreyth gyrthstingis. |
| 1897 Westm. Gaz. 8 Oct. 2/1 On the near [side] a latigo or *girth strap eight feet long is looped twice through the girth buckle. |
| 1884 Knight 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. |
| 1344–5 Durham 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.
| c 1450 Merlin 178 Ha now god yeve me grace to do so moche that he may me girthe with my swerde. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. xiii. 49, I suld, gyrthit [L. cincta] with flambis reid Stowtly haue standyn in ȝon batale steid. 1535 Coverdale Ezek. xvi. 9, I gyrthed y⊇ aboute with white sylcke, I clothed the with kerchues. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe x, Within the four seas that girth Britain. 1848 Lytton K. Arthur vii. lix, They whom the seas of fabled Sirens girth. |
2. To fit or bind (a horse, etc.) with a girth.
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Cengler vn cheval, to girthe a horse. 1687 Miege Gt. Fr. Dict. ii, To Girth a Horse..You girth him too hard. 1835 W. Irving Tour Prairies xxii, ‘For God's sake help me to girth this horse!’ cried another. 1898 Speaker 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.
| 1819 Keats Otho iii. ii, O that..Thy girdle [were] some fine zealous-pained nerve To girth my saddle! 1851 Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxvii, The animals are led in and watered; they are bridled; the robes are thrown over them and girthed. 1866 Froude Hist. Eng. IX. 43 Troopers were girthing up their saddles. 1875 W. S. Hayward Love agst. World 93 Her saddle seemed loosely girthed on. |
| absol. 1876 J. Grant One of the 600 li. 428 When we halted to girth up I threw myself on the rich grass. |
† 4. (See
quot.)
| 1688 R. 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.| 1825 J. 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.
| 1858 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIX. ii. 575 Some of the carrots girthed nearly 20 inches. 1868 Ibid. Ser. ii. IV. ii. 288 He girthed 8 feet. |
Hence
ˈgirthed ppl. a.,
ˈgirthing vbl. n.| 1805 Scott Last Minstr. iii. vi, Down went the steed, the girthing broke. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxx. 207 Those which suspend themselves horizontally by means of a thread girthed round their middle. 1870 Daily 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. |