girdle

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

• noun A belt or sash worn around the waist.
• noun Something that encircles like a belt.
• noun An elasticized, flexible undergarment worn over the waist and hips to give the body a more slender appearance.
• noun A band made around the trunk of a tree by the removal of a strip of bark.
• noun The edge of a cut gem held by the setting.
• noun Anatomy The pelvic or pectoral girdle.
• transitive verb To encircle with a belt.
• transitive verb To form a circle around.
• transitive verb To remove a band of bark and cambium from the circumference of (a tree), usually in order to kill it.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A griddle.
• To encircle or bind with a belt, cord, or sash; gird.
• To make the circuit of; encompass; environ; inclose; shut in.
• To draw a line round, as by marking or cutting; specifically, to cut a complete circle round, as a tree or a limb.
• noun A ring made round the trunk of a tree by the removal of the bark either purposely or accidentally.
• noun In earthworms, the cingulum or clitellum.
• noun A band, belt, or zone; something drawn round the waist of a person and fastened: as, a girdle of fine linen; a leathern girdle.
• noun Hence An inclosing circle, or that which encircles; circumference; compass; limit.
• noun The zodiac (which see).
• noun In gem-cutting; the line or edge that separates the upper from the lower part of a brilliant or other cut stone. It is parallel to the table and culet, and is the part held by the setting. See cut under brilliant.
• noun In architecture, a small band or fillet round the shaft of a column.
• noun In coal-mining, a thin bed of sandstone.
• noun In anatomy, the osseous arch or bony belt by which either limb or diverging appendage is attached to the axial skeleton; the proximal segment of the appendicular skeleton.
• noun In botany, a (usually) longitudinal belt formed by the overlapping edges of two valves of a diatom frustule.
• noun A seaweed, Laminaria digitata, the divisions of whose fronds are strap-like.

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

• transitive verb To bind with a belt or sash; to gird.
• transitive verb To inclose; to environ; to shut in.
• transitive verb United States To make a cut or gnaw a groove around (a tree, etc.) through the bark and alburnum, thus killing it.
• noun Scot. & Prov. Eng. A griddle.
• noun That which girds, encircles, or incloses; a circumference; a belt; esp., a belt, sash, or article of dress encircling the body usually at the waist; a cestus.
• noun Poetic The zodiac; also, the equator.
• noun (Jewelry) The line ofgreatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting. See Illust. of Brilliant.
• noun (Mining) A thin bed or stratum of stone.
• noun (Zoöl.) The clitellus of an earthworm.
• noun (Anat.) the sphenethmoid. See under Sphenethmoid.
• noun a spinning wheel.
• noun (Zoöl.) a ctenophore. See Venus's girdle, under Venus.
• noun (Anat.) See under Pectoral, and Pelvic.
• noun to have bound to one, that is, in subjection.

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

• noun That which girds, encircles, or encloses; a circumference
• noun A belt; especially, a belt, sash, or article of dress encircling the body usually at the waist, often used to support stockings or hosiery.
• noun The zodiac; also, the equator.
• noun The line of greatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting.
• noun A thin bed or stratum of stone.
• noun The clitellum of an earthworm.
• noun Scotland, Northern England Alternative form of griddle.
• verb transitive To gird, encircle, or constrain by such means.