▪ I. girl, n.
(gɜːl)
Forms: 3 gurle, 4–6 gerl(e, 4–7 girle, gyrle, (6 guirle, gierle, gyrll, 7 garle), 9 dial. gal, gell, 7– girl.
[Of obscure etymology.
A conjecture favoured by many scholars (Möller, Noreen, Luick) is that the word represents OE. *gyrela masc., *gyrele fem.:—OTeut. types *gurwilon-, -ôn-, a dim. of *gurwjo-z, -jâ (found in LG. gœre, boy, girl):—Aryan *gh{supw}r̥gh{supw}-, presumed to be represented in Gr. παρθένος virgin. This involves some uncertain phonological assumptions, and the late appearance of the Teut. words gives additional ground for doubt, the ME. gürle being recorded only from the end of the 13th c., and the LG. gœre from the 17th c. It may be noted that boy, lad, lass, and the numerous synonyms in the mod. Scandinavian langs., are all of difficult etymology; probably most of them arose as jocular transferred uses of words that had originally a different meaning.]
† 1. A child or young person of either sex, a youth or maiden. Chiefly in pl.: Children, young people. knave girl: a boy. gay girl: applied to a young woman. Obs.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 108/76 And suyþe gret prece of gurles and Men: comen hire al-a-boute. 13.. K. Alis. 2802 Men myghte ther y-seo hondis wrynge..Women scrike, girles gredyng. c 1350 Will. Palerne 816 And whan þe gaye gerles were in-to þe gardin come, Faire floures þei founde. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 131 Gramer for gurles I gon furste to write, And beot hem with a baleys but ȝif thei wolde lernen. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 666 In daunger hadde he at his owne gyse The yonge girles of the diocyse, And knew hir counseil, and was al hir reed. c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 328 in Babees Bk. 308 Ne delf þou neuer nose thyrle With thombe ne fyngur, as ȝong gyrle. c 1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 181 Here knave gerlys I xal steke. |
2. a. A female child; commonly applied to all young unmarried women.
| 1530 Palsgr. 922 A gyrle [F. garce] havyng laughyng eyes. c 1530 Redforde Play Wit & Sc. (Shaks. Soc.) 17 Idelnes. Thow [Recreacion] art occacion, lo! of more evyll Then I, poore gerle, nay, more then the dyvyll! 1546 Heywood Prov. (1874) 50 The boy thy husband, and thou the girle, his wife. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. v. iv. 134, I hold him but a foole that will endanger His Body, for a Girle that loues him not. a 1652 Brome Queene's Exch. i. ii. Wks. 1873 III. 467 What's that my Girle? 1679 Hatton Corr. (1878) 197 note, One of his sisters..announces the birth of a very lusty garle. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 75 ¶1 The Girl is a Girl of great Merit..she converses with me..like a Daughter. 1760 C. Johnston Chrysal II. i. ii. 11, I will lay you, and you shall lose, my girl, if it was ten times as much. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 227 As smooth And tender as a girl, all-essenced o'er With odours. 1855 Browning Fra Lippo 214 You should not take a fellow eight years old And make him swear to never kiss the girls. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede 62 To think of a gell o' your age wanting to go and sit with half-a-dozen men. 1863 Landor Heroic Idylls, Theron & Zoe 27 Girls often say More than they mean: men always do. 1894 H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot 329 No girl is ever quite good enough to marry any mother's son. |
| Prov. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 628 The Proverb is certainly true..He that Marries a Girl, marrs a Woman. |
¶ old girl: Applied
colloq. to a woman at any time of life, either disrespectfully or (
occas.) as an endearing term of address,
spec. one's mother or wife; also, a former pupil of a girls' school or college; also
attrib. Similarly, to a mare, etc.
| 1826 T. Creevey Let. 22 Aug. in J. Gore Creevey (1948) xvii. 266 The old girl has a jointure of {pstlg}5,000 a year. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xiv, ‘Cheer up, old girl’, said Tom, patting the bay mare on the neck..‘Soho, old girl—gently—gently’. 1848 C. Brontë J. Eyre ii. (1890) 19 He called his mother ‘old girl’, too. 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. xxvii. 272 You know me. It's my old girl that advises. Ibid. 273 ‘Old girl,’ says Mr. Bagnet, ‘give him my opinion.’ 1875 C. M. Yonge Let. 6 Apr. in C. Coleridge C. M. Yonge (1903) 262 Fifty-four mothers had tea in the school... So many are my own old girls. 1898 J. D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 220 He lets aht that Liz an' 'er ole gal was going ter the Crystal Palice. 1947 D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 55 ‘Poor old girl,’ he said as he leg-roped her [sc. a cow]. 1954 E. Jenkins Tortoise & Hare ix. 89 It was Old Girls' Week-end at her school. 1954 G. Smith Flaw in Crystal x. 95 One hears these things on the old-girl network. 1967 E. Lemarchand Death of Old Girl ix. 109 She said she might still be held up at some Old Girls' supper. |
b. A maid-servant. Also in
girl-of-all-work.
| 1668 Pepys Diary 24 Aug., My wife is upon hanging the long chamber, where the girl lies, with the sad stuff that was in the best chamber. 1812 A. Adams in J. Adams' Lett. (1848) 409 Seven o'clock. Blockheads not out of bed. Girls in motion. Mean, when I hire another man⁓servant, that he shall come for one call. 1875 Scribner's Monthly X. 287 But all this time we had no girl, and..at last I determined to go and get a girl myself. So one day at lunch-time I went to an intelligence office in the city. 1882 Mrs. Alexander Freres I. ii. 19, I [a landlady] must look to it myself, for I never yet see a gurl I could trust with a hegg. 1883 S. C. Hall Retrospect II. 139 A dirty, slipshod girl-of-all-work bawled at me from the area. |
c. A sweetheart, lady-love. Also (
U.S. colloq. or
slang)
best girl. Similarly, one's wife.
| 1648 Herrick Hesper. 24 Some ask'd how Pearls did grow, and where? Then spoke I to my Girle, To part her lips, and shew'd them there The Quarelets of Pearl. 1772 J. Wedgwood Let. 4 Oct. (1965) 137 Your good Lady is really recovering her health.., though more slowly than we could wish, which is exactly the case of my poor Girl. 1791 ‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsem. vii. (1809) 97, I may lose my dear girl for ever. 1887, etc. [see best a. 2 c]. 1899 W. Besant Orange Girl i. v. 59, I drew my girl closer and kissed her. 1912 T. Dreiser Financier v. 54 Before leaving to call on his girl, Marjorie Stafford. 1917 Punch 15 Aug. 125/2 And when the War is over, some knight or belted earl, What's survived from killin' Germans, will take 'er for 'is girl. 1940 L. MacNeice Last Ditch 23 Life in a day: he took his girl to the ballet. 1952 M. R. Rinehart Pool xxviii. 249 He even had a girl, although he said he wouldn't marry her until he was cleared of the murder charge. |
d. (
† More fully,
a girl about or of the town,
a girl of ease): a prostitute.
† a kind girl: a mistress.
| 1711 Steele Spect. No. 187 ¶2, I know not whether you have ever heard of the famous girl about Town called Kitty: This Creature..was my Mistress. 1712 Addison Ibid. No. 486 ¶1, I am very particularly acquainted with one who is under entire Submission to a kind Girl, as he calls her..No longer than Tuesday last he took me with him to visit his Mistress. 1756 Demi-Rep 6 The Men of pleasure, and the Girls of ease. 1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 141 Lewis, of monkish renown, Who tickled the fancies of girls of the town. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 477 The ‘gals’ are sure to be beaten cruelly..by their ‘chaps’. |
† e. A black woman.
U.S. colloq. Obs.| 1835 J. H. Ingraham South-West II. 242 They always address them [sc. the slaves] as ‘boy’ and ‘girl’, to all under forty years of age. 1879 A. W. Tourgée Fool's Errand x. 42 You must remember that all colored women are ‘girls’. |
f. Colloq. phr. (all) girls together, on terms of close friendship with another girl or girls; also
attrib. (hyphened).
| 1931 R. Ferguson Brontës went to Woolworth's xii. 141 It would be terrible if she wanted to be all-girls-together with me about him. 1946 ‘S. Russell’ To Bed with Grand Music viii. 101 She seemed more than willing to re-establish a girls-together relationship with Deborah. 1959 J. Braine Vodi xiv. 185 That would-be refined, all-girls-together voice. 1961 A. Christie Pale Horse xii. 128, I got her softened up... Girls-together stuff. |
g. les girls, girls collectively;
spec. chorus girls.
| 1938 S. Beckett Murphy ix. 193 The sceptic rut that places the objects of its curiosity on the level of Les Girls. 1955 E. Waugh Officers & Gentlemen 178 He had come to the bar for stimulus, for a spot of pleasantry with ‘les girls’. 1967 J. Porter Chinks in Curtain ix. 89, I haven't seen hide or hair of him. He's probably still shacked up with les girls. |
h. (the) girl next door, the girl in a conventional romance; a trusting, sweet, and faithful but
usu. unimaginative young woman.
| 1961 Sunday Express 28 May 18/5 June Thorburn..has been trying..to break away from her usual ‘girl next door’ film roles. 1962 C. N. Parkinson In-Laws & Outlaws 37 It is the itch to marry the girl next door which is the mark of those predestined for merely average success. 1963 Listener 24 Jan. 165/1 She had all the physical equipment of the vamp, but the spirit of the girl next door. 1968 Times Educ. Suppl. 23 Feb. 602/2 Diana Quirk's Ophelia was very much the girl-next-door. |
† 3. A roebuck in its second year.
Obs.| 1486 Bk. St. Albans E iv b, The first yere he [the Roo⁓bucke] is a kyde..The secunde yere he is a gerle..The thirde yere an hemule. 1576 Turberv. Venerie 236 A Rowe, the which is called the first yeare a Kidde, the second Gyrle, the third an Hemuse. 1660 Howell Parley Beasts 62 Those pretty Fawns, Prickets, Sorrells, Hemuses, and Girls..which I [a Hinde] brought into the world. 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), Girle (among Hunters) a Roe-buck of 2 Years. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. appositive, indicating sex, as
girl-child,
girl-clerk,
girl-friend,
girl-graduate,
girl-miser,
girl-sculler,
girl-soldier,
girl-sorter,
girl-warrior,
girl-worker; or youthfulness, as
girl-bride,
girl-mother,
girl-queen,
girl-widow,
girl-wife,
girl-woman;
b. simple
attrib., as
girl-life,
girl-nature,
girl-tragedy;
c. objective, as
girl-confining adj.;
girl-crazy,
girl-shy adjs. girl-like adj. and
adv. Also
girl-boy, ? a girlish boy;
girl friend,
girl-friend, a female friend;
spec. a sweetheart; a man's favourite female companion;
girl guide: see
guide n. 2 d;
girl scout U.S., a girl guide.
| 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. v. xxvi. (1597) 129 *Girle-boyes, fauouring Ganimede. 1598 Drayton Heroic. Ep. 18/2 And in my place vpon this regal throne, To set that girle-boy wanton Gaueston. 1884 Black Jud. Shaks. ix. in Harper's Mag. Mar. 542/2 My father used to call him the girl-boy. |
| 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre II. ix. 220 Young Mrs. Rochester—Fairfax Rochester's *girl-bride. 1935 Burlington Mag. Mar. 143/2 Quite a young man by the side of his girl-bride. |
| 1886 Longm. Mag. 646 A very great number of the *girl-children of the State have found happy homes in Canada. |
| 1901 Daily Chron. 29 May 3/6 No redeeming feature of *girl-clerk labour. 1902 Ibid. 1 Sept. 3/6 The market is vastly overflooded with incapable girl-clerks, who can just manipulate a machine, at 10s. or 12s. a week. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 17 June 9/3 A girl-clerk does not expect to obtain an engagement without the necessary knowledge of shorthand and typing. |
| 1798 W. Sotheby tr. Wieland's Oberon (1826) I. 55 The guardian of these *girl-confining walls. |
| 1930 I. Gershwin (title) *Girl crazy. 1948 G. Vidal City & Pillar (1949) x. 251 He was girl crazy, too, I guess. |
| 1859 Harper's Mag. Aug. 337/1 A demure little widow, much more gay and girlish than any of her *girl-friends when she chose to forsake her rôle. 1892 F. J. Furnivall Hoccleve's Minor Works p. iv (dedication), To the memory of Teena Rochfort Smith my much-respected and deeply-regretted girl-friend. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 19 May 4/2 The ‘Wedding March’ was whistled by twelve girl-friends of the bride. 1907 A. Woollcott Let. 22 June (1946) 11 My best girl friend is the daughter of the big Grace Church in Utica. 1926 H. Fields (title) The girl friend. 1928 R. Macaulay Keeping up Appearances xi. 118 Daphne seems quite to have become Raymond's girl friend again. 1962 ‘C. E. Maine’ Darkest of Nights v. 67 Mom made up her mind to tolerate his girl friends years ago. |
| 1847 Tennyson Princ. Prol. 142 Sweet *girl-graduates in their golden hair. |
| 1888 Athenæum 26 May 659/3 A well meaning..story of *girl-life. |
| 1852 Rock Ch. of Fathers III. i. 269 The *girl-like maiden-mother bowed down before the crib. a 1861 T. Woolner My Beautiful Lady (1863) 124 Years before..girllike she Adored a youth with sparkling genius graced. |
| 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. vi, I saw you sitting there, like the ghost of a *girl-miser in the dead of the night. |
| a 1861 T. Woolner My beautiful Lady (1863) 95 What art thou whispering lowly to thy babe, O wan *girl-mother? 1897 Edin. Rev. Oct. 393 The girl-mother of Amadis. |
| 1876 Black Madcap V. xxvi. 242 Was it not true, he had to admit, that he knew nothing of *girl-nature? |
| 1882 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. II. 189 The *girl-‘Queen’—she was only sixteen years of age. |
| 1909 Daily Chron. 27 July 4/7 The *girl-scout has arrived... This writer saw six of them..on Saturday—neat blue serge skirts, straw hats, haversacks, and poles. 1959 Listener 1 Oct. 542/3 A small contribution from Henry Miller and the Girl Scouts. |
| 1925 T. Dreiser Amer. Trag. (1926) i. xi. 71 He, at once girl-hungry and *girl-shy, held himself nervously aloof. |
| 1895 ‘Mark Twain’ in Harper's Mag. July 232 To see and listen to the wonderful *girl-soldier [sc. Joan of Arc]. 1944 Blunden Shells by Stream 34 Girl-soldiers hasten. |
| 1894 Daily News 28 Mar. 3/1, 10,000 notices of withdrawal..are handed to a roomful of ‘*girl sorters’. |
| 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. I. xvii. 342 His mind glanced over the *girl-tragedies that are going on in the world. |
| 1894 Dublin Rev. Oct. 309 Leaders to whom the triumphs of the *girl-warrior were a reproach. |
| 1837 Hawthorne Twice-Told T. (1851) I. xix. 285 Inflamed to madness by the coquetry of the *girl-widow. |
| 1857 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 321 The young *girl-wife who lives there is very lovely. |
| 1876 M. E. Braddon Dead Men's Shoes I. i. 1 A *girl-woman alone on Battersea Bridge. |
| 1895 Tablet 20 July 108 The *girl-workers taking their wages home. |
▪ II. girl, v.1 [f. the n.] 1. trans. in
nonce-uses.
a. To furnish with girls.
b. Jocularly substituted for ‘to
man’, where the agent is a girl.
| a 1635 Corbet Poems (1807) 126 Nor hast thou in his nuptiall armes enjoy'd Barren imbraces, but wert girl'd and boy'd. 1886 J. Ashby-Sterry Lazy Minstr. (ed. 2) 53 She oft Quite longs..to ‘girl the boats’. |
2. intr. To consort with women. Hence
ˈgirling vbl. n.,
usu. in
phr. to go (a-)girling.
| 1787 Sessions Papers 10 Jan. 325/2 The maid said two men were missing, and the others said, G―d d―n them, they are gone a girling,..but we will pay for them. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 537 No girl would when I went girling. 1931 L. Steffens Autobiogr. I. i. i. 8 Cowboys..used to come shouting on bucking bunches of bronchos into town to mix with the teamsters, miners, and steamboat men in the drinking, gambling, girling, fighting, of those days. |
▪ III. girl, v.2 Sc. (
gɜːl)
Also
girrel.
[onomatopœic.] intr. To thrill, whirl.
| 1820 Hogg Wint. Even. T. I. 336 Ye hae gart a' my flesh girrel, John. Ibid. II. 64 Its no deth it feirs me, but the efter-kum garis my hert girle. 1894 Ian Maclaren Bonnie Brier Bush vi. ii. 222 Juist like the threshing mill at Drumsheugh scraiking and girling till it's fairly aff. |