garter

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An elasticized band worn around the leg to hold up a stocking or sock.
• noun A suspender strap with a fastener attached to a girdle or belt to hold up a stocking or sock.
• noun An elasticized band worn around the arm to keep the sleeve pushed up.
• noun The badge of the Order of the Garter.
• noun The order itself.
• noun Membership in the order.
• transitive verb To fasten and hold with a garter.
• transitive verb To put a garter on.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To bind with a garter.
• To invest with the garter, as a member of the Order of the Garter.
• noun plural Leg-irons or shackles.
• noun A tie or fastening to keep the stocking in place on the leg; especially, a band passing round the leg, either above or below the knee.
• noun The badge of the Order of the Garter (which see, below); hence, membership in the order; also [capitalized], the order itself: as, to confer or to receive the garter; a knight of the Garter.
• noun In heraldry, same as bendlet, : sometimes taken as occupying half the space of the bendlet, or quarter of the bend.
• noun [capitalized] An abbreviation of Garter king-at-arms (which see, below).
• noun plural In a circus, the tapes that are held up for a performer to leap over.
• noun A semicircular key in a bench-vise.
• noun In printing, an iron band which prevented the splitting of the wooden box that resisted the impression-spindle of the old form of handpress.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To bind with a garter.
• transitive verb To invest with the Order of the Garter.
• noun A band used to prevent a stocking from slipping down on the leg.
• noun The distinguishing badge of the highest order of knighthood in Great Britain, called the Order of the Garter, instituted by Edward III.; also, the Order itself.
• noun (Her.) Same as Bendlet.
• noun (Zoöl.) a fish of the genus Lepidopus, having a long, flat body, like the blade of a sword; the scabbard fish.
• noun the chief of the official heralds of England, king-at-arms to the Order of the Garter; -- often abbreviated to Garter.
• noun (Zoöl.) one of several harmless American snakes of the genus Eutænia, of several species (esp. E. saurita and E. sirtalis); one of the striped snakes; -- so called from its conspicuous stripes of color.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A band worn around the leg to hold up a sock or stocking.
• verb to fasten with a garter

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb fasten with or as if with a garter
• noun a band (usually elastic) worn around the leg to hold up a stocking (or around the arm to hold up a sleeve)