Definitions

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

  • noun A plot of land used for the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, herbs, or fruit.
  • noun An arrangement of living material that is cultivated for food, as a fungus garden maintained by ants.
  • noun Grounds laid out with flowers, trees, and ornamental shrubs and used for recreation or display.
  • noun A yard or lawn.
  • noun A fertile, well-cultivated region.
  • noun An open-air establishment where refreshments are served.
  • noun A large public auditorium or arena.
  • intransitive verb To cultivate (a plot of ground) as a garden.
  • intransitive verb To furnish with a garden.
  • intransitive verb To plant or tend a garden.
  • intransitive verb To work as a gardener.
  • adjective Of, suitable to, or used in a garden.
  • adjective Provided with open areas and greenery.
  • adjective Garden-variety.
  • idiom (lead/take) To mislead or deceive (another).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Common; ordinary: as, a garden hen; garden proceedings.
  • noun A plot of ground devoted to the cultivation of culinary vegetables, fruits, or flowering and ornamental plants.
  • noun A rich, well-cultivated spot or tract of country; a delightful spot.
  • Of, pertaining to, or produced in a garden: as, garden implements or plants.
  • To lay out or cultivate a garden; work in a garden, or in the manner of a gardener.
  • To cultivate as a garden: generally in the past participle.

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

  • transitive verb To cultivate as a garden.
  • intransitive verb To lay out or cultivate a garden; to labor in a garden; to practice horticulture.
  • noun A piece of ground appropriated to the cultivation of herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables.
  • noun A rich, well-cultivated spot or tract of country.
  • noun an ornamental plant (Impatiens Balsamina).
  • noun a wheelbarrow tank and pump for watering gardens.
  • noun A globe of dark-colored glass, mounted on a pedestal, to reflect surrounding objects; -- much used as an ornament in gardens in Germany.
  • noun [Southern U.S.] A privy.
  • noun the raising on a small scale of seeds, fruits, vegetables, etc., for sale.
  • noun rich, mellow earth which is fit for a garden.
  • noun a cast nail, used for fastening vines to brick walls.
  • noun a net for covering fruits trees, vines, etc., to protect them from birds.
  • noun a social party held out of doors, within the grounds or garden attached to a private residence.
  • noun a plot appropriated to a garden.
  • noun a watering pot.
  • noun a garden engine; a barrow pump.
  • noun large shears, for clipping trees and hedges, pruning, etc.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the diadem spider (Epeira diadema), common in gardens, both in Europe and America. It spins a geometrical web. See Geometric spider, and Spider web.
  • noun a stand for flower pots.
  • noun [Colloq.] vegetables raised in a garden.
  • noun a syringe for watering plants, sprinkling them with solutions for destroying insects, etc.
  • noun [Colloq.] vegetables raised for the market.
  • noun [Obs.] garden truck.
  • noun etc. See under Bear, etc.
  • noun See under Hanging.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gardin, from Old North French, from gart, of Germanic origin; see gher- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French gardin (compare modern French jardin from Old French jardin), diminutive (cf. Vulgar Latin hortus gardinus) or oblique form of *gard (compare Old French jart), from Old Low Franconian *gardo 'fenced in yard, garden' (compare Dutch gaarde, gaard), from Proto-Germanic *gardô (compare West Frisian gard, Low German Garden, German Garten), from Proto-Germanic *gardaz (“yeard”). More at yard.

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Examples

  • He claims that ˜five foot garden hose™ is an individuative term since no part of it is a five foot garden hose, but ˜garden hose™ is not individuative.

    Sortals Grandy, Richard E. 2007

  • An elderly waiter with trembling hands was hurriedly spreading a pink and white checked cloth over the rusty green iron table, saying: “If the lady and gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden, if the lady and gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden…

    Hysteria Thomas Stearns 1917

  • "_And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and A dam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden_."

    Hetty Wesley Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

  • But ... how put such transcendental facts into common or garden (for it is _garden_) language?

    Hortus Vitae Essays on the Gardening of Life Vernon Lee 1895

  • He paced about his apartments, feeling a sort of physical delight, opening his window and looking out on the commonplace garden through which so many ministers had passed and which he called, as so many before him had done: _My garden_.

    His Excellency the Minister Jules Claretie 1876

  • _Lodovico discovereth to Madam Beatrice the love he beareth her, whereupon she sendeth Egano her husband into the garden, in her own favour, and lieth meanwhile with Lodovico, who, presently arising, goeth and cudgelleth Egano in the garden_ 344

    The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio 1344

  • The Morning Prayer Hall courtyard features a salsabil, or paradise water fountain, as its centerpiece, while the main garden is inlaid with a network of small water canals connected to a central fountain.

    Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi: A Monument of Tolerance in the Heart of Dubai Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi 2010

  • The Morning Prayer Hall courtyard features a salsabil, or paradise water fountain, as its centerpiece, while the main garden is inlaid with a network of small water canals connected to a central fountain.

    Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi: A Monument of Tolerance in the Heart of Dubai Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi 2010

  • The Morning Prayer Hall courtyard features a salsabil, or paradise water fountain, as its centerpiece, while the main garden is inlaid with a network of small water canals connected to a central fountain.

    Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi: A Monument of Tolerance in the Heart of Dubai Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi 2010

  • Age and hygienic necessities bind me to a somewhat anchoritic life in pure air, with abundant leisure to meditate upon the wisdom of Candide's sage aphorism, "Cultivons notre jardin" -- especially if the term garden may be taken broadly and applied to the stony and weed-grown ground within my skull, as well as to a few perches of more promising chalk down outside it.

    Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 3 Leonard Huxley 1896

  • Through crowdfunding, Idle Women bought land on the Leeds to Liverpool canal to plant a physic garden with Guardian gardening columnist Alys Fowler (a physic garden contains herbs with medicinal properties).

    'As vital as breathing': Idle Women's radical skills workshops Augusta Pownall 2022

Comments

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  • My brother calls the garden a graveyard.

    He laughs at the plight of the grass

    and ruthlessly counts the corpses of the fish

    rotting beneath the sick skin of shallow water.

    My brother is addicted to philosophy

    he sees the healing of the garden in its death.

    - Forugh Farrokhzad, 'I Pity the Garden', translated from the Farsi by Sholeh Wolpé.

    November 10, 2008

  • faith, Israel

    July 23, 2009

  • hypersensitivity, Pitcairn island.

    July 23, 2009

  • Also a really good poem by Andrew Marvell.

    October 6, 2009