Meaning & use
girdle
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Meanings
nouncountableold-fashioned
A tight undergarment worn around the waist and hips to shape the body.
Grammar: Countable and rather old-fashioned: a girdle.
Patterns
- wear a girdle
Her grandmother wore a girdle under her dress at every wedding.
The shop sold stockings and girdles in the 1950s.
She felt much more comfortable once she took off the girdle.
nouncountableliterary
A belt, cord or sash worn around the waist.
Grammar: Literary in this sense: a girdle of gold.
Patterns
- a girdle of something
The knight tied a leather girdle around his tunic.
A silver girdle held her robe in place.
The monk's girdle was a plain rope.
verbtransitiveliterary
To surround or encircle something completely.
Grammar: Takes an object: mountains girdle the valley.
Patterns
- girdle something with something
Hills girdle the city on three sides.
A ring of trees girdled the old house.
Walls girdled the town for centuries.
Word forms
| plural | girdles |
|---|---|
| third person singular | girdles |
| past tense | girdled |
| -ing form | girdling |
Common combinations
- a leather girdle
- He wore a leather girdle over his robe.
- girdle the globe
- Satellites girdle the globe in orbit.
- girdle a tree
- Foresters sometimes girdle a tree to kill it.
- a girdle of mountains
- A girdle of mountains protects the valley.
- tight girdle
- A tight girdle made breathing difficult.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- girdled adjective
- surrounded or encircled
- girdler noun
- a maker of girdles or an insect that girdles trees
- ungirdle verb
- to remove a girdle (rare)
Commonly confused: girdle or griddle?
girdle vs griddle
A griddle is a flat cooking pan; girdle is a belt or to encircle. They look and sound similar.
Practice
Tall mountains ___ the valley on every side.
Choose one answer.
Girdle as a verb means to encircle. Griddle is a pan, and glide and gird do not fit this sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “girdle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.