Definitions

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

  • noun A beam, as of steel, wood, or reinforced concrete, used as a main horizontal support in a building or bridge.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun one who girds or gibes; a satirist.
  • noun One who or that which girds, binds, or encircles. Specifically A main beam of either wood or iron, resting with each end upon a wall or pier, used to support a superstructure or a superincumbent weight, as a floor, the upper wall of a house, the roadway of a bridge, or the like.

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

  • noun One who girds; a satirist.
  • noun One who, or that which, girds.
  • noun (Arch. & Engin.) A main beam; a stright, horizontal beam to span an opening or carry weight, such as ends of floor beams, etc.; hence, a framed or built-up member discharging the same office, technically called a compound girder. See Illusts. of Frame, and Doubleframed floor, under Double.
  • noun etc. See under Bowstring, Box, etc.
  • noun See under Bridge.
  • noun a girder consisting of longitudinal bars united by diagonal crossing bars.
  • noun a girder consisting of horizontal upper and lower bars connected by a series of diagonal bars sloping alternately in opposite directions so as to divide the space between the bars into a series of triangles.
  • noun a girder consisting of two parallel wooden beams, between which is an iron plate, the whole clamped together by iron bolts.

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

  • noun A beam of steel, wood, or reinforced concrete, used as a main horizontal support in a building or structure

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

  • noun a beam made usually of steel; a main support in a structure

Etymologies

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Examples

  • "There it is!" she exclaims, pointing to a dark blob, perched incongruously halfway along the main girder supporting the rig's permanently burning gas flare.

    A working life: The gas rig technician Graham Snowdon 2010

  • A column or girder which is out of line or plumb not only looks bad but may be required to be removed and corrected by the engineer.

    Concrete Construction Methods and Costs Halbert Powers Gillette

  • W.J. M. Rankine proved (_Applied M.chanics_, p. 370) that the necessary strength of a stiffening girder would be only one-seventh part of that of an independent girder of the same span as the bridge, suited to carry the same moving load (not including the dead weight of the girder which is supported by the chain).

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" Various

  • It is the introduction of this rigid girder which is responsible for the descriptive generic term of "semi-rigid."

    Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

  • This is due to a folding of the blastodermic wall by what is called the "girder," a plug-shaped growth of Rauber's "roof-layer."

    The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel 1876

  • The Aussi government recently launched a $12.9 billion program to girder the country's water supplies against climate change and is requiring ongoing climate adaptation reviews every five years.

    Gregory Unruh: Business in a Post-Holocene World Gregory Unruh 2011

  • Called the Window on the World, it is a true cabinet of curiosities with more that 800 objects, including a Tay Bridge girder and a 1930s gyrocopter, displayed up to 18 metres high.

    New National Museum of Scotland unveiled after £47m revamp 2011

  • The wing must also resist twisting forces, done either by a monocoque "D" tube structure forming the leading edge, or by the aforementioned linking two spars in some form of box beam or lattice girder structure.

    Transition Team Update - NASA Watch 2009

  • The Aussi government recently launched a $12.9 billion program to girder the country's water supplies against climate change and is requiring ongoing climate adaptation reviews every five years.

    Gregory Unruh: Business in a Post-Holocene World Gregory Unruh 2011

  • The Aussi government recently launched a $12.9 billion program to girder the country's water supplies against climate change and is requiring ongoing climate adaptation reviews every five years.

    Gregory Unruh: Business in a Post-Holocene World Gregory Unruh 2011

Comments

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  • Lay me on an anvil, O God.

    Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.

    Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.

    Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.

    Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars.

    - Carl Sandburg, 'Prayers Of Steel'.

    November 17, 2008

  • I am Bender, please insert girder.

    November 18, 2008

  • Means: The main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. See joist

    March 20, 2013