garter

▪ I. garter, n.
    (ˈgɑːtə(r))
    Forms: 5 gartare, -ere, gardere, gart(o)ur, 6 Sc. gartan(e, -tain, 6–9 Sc. garten, 4– garter.
    [a. OF. gartier, jartier, jarretier (also jartiere, F. jarretière, whence Sp. jarretera, It. giarrettiera), f. OF. garet, jaret (F. jarret) the bend of the knee (in men), the lower part of the leg (in animals) = Sp. jarrete, It. garretto. A form jarre, garra, in Fr. dialects answers to Sp. and Pg. garra, and may be of Celtic origin = Breton gar, Welsh gâr the ham or leg-bone; if so the words must have spread from OFr. to the other Romanic tongues. The substitution of n for r in the Scottish forms is not accounted for.]
    1. a. A band worn round the leg, either above or below the knee, to keep the stocking from falling down.

1382 Wyclif Gen. xiv. 23 Fro a threed of the weeft vnto a garter [1388 layner] of a hoos. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 188/1 Gartere or gardere, subligar. 1539 in Pitcairn Criminal Trials (1833) I. *297 Beltes and gartanis of taffiteis. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health 51 With ii garters I do bynde the wrestes of the armes. c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon §63 (1810) 62 Lancelot..was found hanged in his bed-chamber, by his garter, to the bedstead. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 16 ¶1 A Pair of silver Garters buckled below the Knee. 1786 Burns Halloween 24 The lads sae trig, wi' wooer-babs, Weel knotted on their garten. 1826 Scott Woodst. iii, Lasses leaping till you might see where the scarlet garter fastened the light-blue hose. 1865 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 288, I have knitted myself a pair of garters.

    † b. A similar band, worn as a belt or sash. Obs.

1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. iv. Columnes 271 From her right shoulder, sloaping over-thwart her, A watchet Scarf, or broad imbrodered Garter.

    c. Naut. slang. Fetters, irons.

1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Iron Garters, a cant word for bilboes, or fetters. 1867 in Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.

    2. a. the Garter, the badge of the highest order of English knighthood. Hence, membership of this order; the order itself.
    The institution of the order is commonly (on the authority of Froissart) attributed to Edward III about the year 1344. By the time of Selden (1614) it was traditionally asserted that the garter was that of the Countess of Salisbury, which fell off while she danced with the King, who picked it up and tied it on his own leg, saying to those present Honi soit qui mal y pense. The Garter as the badge of the Order is a ribbon of dark-blue velvet, edged and buckled with gold, and bearing the above words embroidered in gold, and is worn below the left knee; garters also form part of the ornament of the collar worn by the Knights.

c 1350 Wynnere & Wastoure 63 And iche a gartare of golde gerede full riche Then were th[e]re wordes in þe webbe..payntted of plunket..‘hethyng haue the hathell þat any harme thynkes’. [1388 in Higden (Rolls) IX. 155 A cause qil fuist chevalier del gartour.] 14.. Hoccleve Min. Poems (1892) 41 To yow, lordes of the garter ‘flour Of Chiualrie’ as men yow clepe and calle. a 1500 Flower & Leaf lxxv, Eek there be Knightes olde of the garter, That in hir tyme did right worthily. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 108 b, Sir Jhon Fastolffe, the same yere for his valiauntnes elected into the ordre of the Garter. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ix. 230 The king of Jngland with his Gartan..maid him illustre. a 1685 Dryden Albion & Albanius iii. Wks. 1883 VII. 283 Record the Garter's glory; A badge for heroes, and for kings to bear. 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock i. 85 Peers, and dukes, and all their sweeping train, And garters, stars, and coronets appear. 1821 Byron Juan iv. cix, Blue as the garters which serenely lie Round the Patrician left-legs. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes I. 296 You might as well ask the prime minister for the next vacant garter.

    b. pl. Knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost (in France), wearing a blue ribbon or garter (cordon bleu).

1670 Cotton Espernon iii. ix. 468 The Dukes, and Peers of France, the Officers of the Crown, the blue Garters, and whoever of the highest quality of the Kingdom.

    3. Her. a. (See quot. 1882, and cf. gartier.)
    In some Dicts. the garter is explained as half of the bendlet.

1658 Phillips, Garter..also half a bend in Blazon. 1882 Cussans Her. iv. (ed. 3) 57 The diminutives of the Bend are the Bendlet or Garter, which is half the width of the Bend.

    b. A strap or ribbon buckled in a circle, with the free end hanging down.

1882 Cussans Her. xviii. (ed. 3) 244 Another badge is sometimes worn. This is a George within an inscribed Garter.

    4. a. transf. A band which surrounds anything as a garter does the leg, or which resembles a garter in shape.

1556 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 258 Item, for a garter for the sydes [of cucking stool]..iij{supd}.

    † b. Printing. (See quot.) Obs.

1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc. II. 65 The Garter (but more properly the Coller)..is the round Hoop incompassing the flat Grove or Neck in the Shank of the Spindle.

    c. techn. A semicircular plate, fitting into a groove in the screw of a bench-vice, in order that the vice may open when unscrewed.

1874 in Knight Dict. Mech. 943/1.

    5. a. The belt or band used in the game of ‘prick the garter’ (see 7); the game itself.

1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 112 The profits gained by..wheel of fortune, the garter, &c. 1833 Moir Mansie Wauch xix. (1849) 140 Swindling folks at fairs by the game of the garter.

    b. The tapes held up for a circus-performer to leap over.

1854 Dickens Hard T. vi. 37 Jupe has missed his tip very often lately..Offered at the garters four times last night, and never done 'em once.

    6. As abbreviation for: a. Garter King of Arms (see king); b. garter-snake (see 8).

a. ? 1504 in Trevelyan Papers (Camden Soc.) III. 7 The armys off Carminow, Garter seth..came of the iij brotherys. When ye ware made knytt ther wher but iiij cottes off recorde yn Garterys booke. 1558 in Leland Collect. (1774) V. 321 [Interment of Q. Mary] Then the Executors. Then Garter. Then the chief Morner. 1614 Selden Titles Hon. 364 The Kings of England are Soueraigns of the Order, and Henrie V ordaind the King of Heralds, Garter, for it. 1724 Lond. Gaz. No. 6284/2 Garter carrying on a Crimson Velvet Cushion the Garter (the Ensign of the Order) and a Gold George in a Blue Ribbon. 1796 Pegge Anonym. (1809) 366 The late excellent Garter, John Anstis, Esq. 1882 Cussans Her. xviii. (ed. 3) 245 In 1881, Garter, and the other officials, invested the King of Spain, in Madrid, in due and ancient form.

b. 1880 New Virginians I. 132 This rockery..will be a regular snake nursery! The garter and the copperhead will think you put it up on purpose for them.

    7. Phrases. to cast one's garter: (Sc.) to secure a husband; in the catching up of a garter: in a moment; to fly the garter: see fly v.¹ 4 b; to have one's guts for garters: see gut n. 1 b; pricking in the garter (also prick-the-garter): a swindling game (see fast-and-loose); see also prick v. 29.

1697 Vanbrugh Relapse iv. i, I'll do your honour's business in the catching up of a garter. 1815 Sporting Mag. XLV. 234 He had better lose his money in a more fashionable way than by pricking in the garter. 1826 R. T. in Hone Everyday Bk. II. 1309 Here is pricking in the garter. 1869 C. Gibbon R. Gray xi, ‘Ye micht hae cast your gartens a hantle waur, guidwife.’

    8. Comb.: garter belt, a suspender-belt; garter-blue, the colour (originally pale, now dark blue) of the ribbon worn by Knights of the Garter; garter-fish, the scabbard-fish (Lepidopus caudatus); garter-knee, the left knee, on which the Garter is worn; garter-plate, a plate of gilt copper, upon which the arms of a knight of the garter are engraved, and which is fixed in the stall of the knight in St. George's Chapel, Windsor (Elvin 1889); garter-ring (see quot.); garter-robes, the dress proper to Knights of the Garter; garter-snake, (a) U.S., the name of various grass- or ribbon-snakes of the genus Eutænia; (b) S. Afr. the name of various banded snakes, as Elaps lacteus; garter-stitch, the simplest stitch in knitting, orig. used in making garters; also called plain knitting; garter-vein (see quot.); garter-webbing, ‘a narrow elastic webbing enclosed in a covering of silk-ribbon, used for garters’ (Stand. Dict.).

1959 W. Brown Cry Kill viii. 76 Naked except for her dark nylon stockings and a *garter belt. 1963 Time 4 Jan. 40/3 No girdle or garter belt was needed [for leotards]. 1971 ‘D. Shannon’ Whim to Kill ii. 30 Her white nylon panties and garter-belt had been ripped off.

1789 Ann. Reg. 252 The gown was white tiffany, with a *garter blue body. 1888 Bookseller 5 Sept. 915 The books were superbly bound in ‘garter blue’ crushed levant.

1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 313 The Lipidopus [sic] or the *Garter-fish. The body sword-like; the head lengthened out.

1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxxvii, A short man was his Lordship..always caressing his *garter-knee.

1709 Hearne Collect. 17 Nov. (O.H.S.) II. 310 In former times there were several Gold Rings made for the Use of Knights of the Garter, which they receiv'd at their first Installment... They had often the same motto with the Garter, and were therefore called *Garter-Rings, being cast into the Figure of Garters. 1716 Lond. Gaz. No. 5430/4 A Garter-Ring, with the Motto Honi soit qui mal y pense.

1702 Eng. Post 23 Mar., The late Duke of Gloucester in his *garter robes.

1775 A. Burnaby Trav. 10 Reptiles and insects are almost innumerable: some of them are indeed harmless and beautiful; such as the black-snake, the bead-snake, the *garter-snake, the fire-fly. 1789 W. Paterson Narr. Journeys Country of Hottentots 163 The Kouse Band, or Garter Snake, is another of the poisonous reptiles of that country. 1885 C. F. Holder Marvel Anim. Life 131 One of the commonest of the non-poisonous snakes is the striped, or common garter snake. 1910 East London Dispatch 10 June 6/2 The Garter Snakes and the Vipers are the only snakes of South Africa which permit themselves generally to be closely approached without evincing much concern. 1931 R. L. Ditmars Snakes of World xiii. 165 Garter snakes or Coral snakes. 1947 J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life S. Afr. xxxvi. 328 The various species of garter snakes (Elaphechis and Homorelaps) likewise are akin to the true cobra.

1909 Daily Chron. 8 Dec. 9/4 Sixty stitches are loosely cast on, and sixty rows of *garter-stitch knitted. 1970 M. Hamilton-Hunt Knitting Dict. 8 Garter stitch is used for this corner.

1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v. Vein, *Garter or gartering vein is a fourth branch of the thigh vein, from which it descends..unto the bought of the ham, where it gets this name.

▪ II. garter, v.
    (ˈgɑːtə(r))
    Also 5 garteryn, 6 Sc. gartain.
    [f. prec.]
    1. trans. To tie with a garter. Also with on, up.

c 1440 Promp. Parv. 188/1 Garteryn, subligo. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxx x, Her fete proper, she gartered well her hose. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. ii. i. 83 Hee beeing in loue, could not see to garter his hose. 1601 ― All's Well ii. iii. 265 Why dooest thou garter vp thy armes a this fashion? Dost make hose of thy sleeues? 1617 F. Moryson Itin. ii. 46 His leggs somewhat little, which hee gartered ever above the knee. 1673 Wycherley Gentl. Dancing-Mast. iv. i, I have taken occasion to garter my stockings before him, as if unawares of him. 1717 St. André in Phil. Trans. XXX. 580 Like as a Silk-Stocking, which when 'tis not gartered, falls upon the Foot. 1807 Pike Sources Mississ. iii. App. (1810) 36 A kind of leather boot of wrapper, bound round the leg..and gartered on.

absol. 1791 J. Lackington Memoirs (1792) 454 They..put on their shoes and stockings, and garter up very deliberately. 1887 Frith Autobiog. I. 241 Rob Roy..was supposed to be able to garter below the knee without stooping.

    † b. Surg. To bandage tightly. Obs.

1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 123 b, His medicine was this: Garter each leg immediately one handful above the knee with a liste, good and hard. 1607 Markham Caval. iv. 8 Take soft linnen ragges, and therewithall to garter vppe the Foales hinder legs, three fingars aboue the cambrell. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. xvi. 565 They garter up the Skin about the twelfth vertebra of the Back.

    c. transf. To fetter (cf. the n. 1 c).

1604 Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 66, I charge you keepe the peace, or have your legs gartered with yrons.

    2. Her. To surround with a garter (cf. the n. 3 b).

1864 Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. xiii. (ed. 3) 107 One is charged with Camoys only..and is gartered.

Oxford English Dictionary