▪ I. † girse Obs.
[var. girth n.1, prob. from pl. gir(th)s.]
1. A saddle-girth; = girth n.1 1.
| [1417–18 Abingdon Acc. (Camden) 88 Et in frenis, capistris, singulis, gurs' emptis..iiijs. viijd.] 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xxiii. lxvi, Orlando..With all his strength bestrides the saddle fast, Yet did the Pagan heave him with such strength That all his gyrses broken were at length. 1613–18 Daniel Coll. Hist. Eng. (1626) 46 All strooke his horse together with their Launces; as they brake pectorall, girses, and all. 1623 J. Taylor (Water-P.) Praise Hempseed Wks. iii. 69/2 As Sadlers for their elks haire to stuffe their sadles And girses, and a thousand fidle fadles. 1655 E. Terry Voy. E. India 151 His great Elephants..carry, each of them, one iron gun, about five foot long, lying upon a strong frame of wood, made square, that is fitted to a thick broad Pannel fastned about him with very strong and broad Girses or Girts. |
2. A band or hoop; = girth n.1 2.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Cincha, a girse, the iron that bindeth a wheele, Cingulum, orbita ferrea, canthus. |
3. Comb., as girse-web = girth-web.
| 1697 R. Pierce Bath Mem. i. ii. 29 Laying him upon a kind of a Cradle, bottom'd with Girse-web, letting it down, by degrees, into the Bath. |
▪ II. girse
dial. var. grass.