Definitions

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

  • noun The distance around something; the circumference.
  • noun Size; bulk.
  • noun A strap encircling an animal's body in order to secure a load or saddle on its back; a cinch.
  • transitive verb To measure the circumference of.
  • transitive verb To encircle.
  • transitive verb To secure with a girth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A band or girdle; especially, a band passed under the belly of a horse or other animal, and drawn tight and fastened, to secure a saddle or a pack on its back.
  • noun The measure round a person's body or round a pillar, tree, or anything of a cylindrical or roundish shape.
  • noun A girdling; a circuit; a perimeter; an encircling inclosure.
  • noun In car-building, a long horizontal bracing-timber on the inside of the frame of a box-car.
  • noun In. printing, one of two bands of leather or stout webbing (also called straps) attached to the rounce of a hand-press, used for running the carriage in and out.
  • To bind with a girth.
  • To encircle or surround with a measuring-line, as in measuring moldings, etc.

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

  • transitive verb rare To bind as with a girth.
  • noun A band or strap which encircles the body; especially, one by which a saddle is fastened upon the back of a horse.
  • noun The measure around any object, such as a body at the waist or belly, or a box ; the circumference of anything.
  • noun A small horizontal brace or girder.

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

  • noun The distance measured around an object.
  • noun A band passed under the belly of an animal to hold various types of saddles in place.
  • noun informal One's waistline circumference, most often a large one.
  • verb To bind as if with a girth or band.

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

  • verb tie a cinch around
  • noun stable gear consisting of a band around a horse's belly that holds the saddle in place
  • noun the distance around a person's body

Etymologies

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

[Middle English gerth, girth strap, from Old Norse gjördh, girdle; see gher- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old Norse gjǫrð (whence the Icelandic gjörð), akin to Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌳𐌰 (gairda), German Gurt. Cognate with Albanian ngërthej ("to tie, bind, fasten").

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Examples

  • At 37 inches long and 24.75 inches in girth, and the lunker weighed 28.8 pounds, roughly a pound heavier than the previous brown trout record.

    Missouri State Record Brown Trout Caught on Taneycomo 2009

  • I caught a rear-end glimpse, with a stiff tail, as big in girth as my body, standing out straight behind.

    A RELIC OF THE PLIOCENE 2010

  • Penis enlargement medicines and best natural male enhancement ways to enlarge penis size in girth and width to enlarge penis naturally.

    Matthew Yglesias » Why Don’t You Guys Ever Report the Good News? 2007

  • Pick a Christmas tree that suits your family: large in girth and always needing a drink.

    A 2006 Research Plan 2006

  • Clem was not a tall man, but he made up for it in girth and attitude.

    365 tomorrows » 2005 » September : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2005

  • I caught a rear-end glimpse, with a stiff tail, as big in girth as my body, standing out straight behind.

    A Relic of the Pliocene 1904

  • There is an elm about a mile from the village seventeen feet in girth, and not long since we heard of a bass-wood or linden twenty-eight feet in circumference.

    Rural Hours 1887

  • The primeval pines up here are of gigantic size, rising from eighty to over a hundred feet, enormous in girth, and garlanded with hoary grey-green moss, the growth of centuries.

    Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys 1873

  • That doesn't make any sense, he's not fast or good at defending the paint or anything wow if Fat Baby is going to be allowed to play this well - I give up. out of all the bigs only brad miller has a d in his name girth, I want to say.

    Blog a Bull 2009

  • The fish was measured by tape to be 44.5” in girth and 81” in length before being released in healthy condition back into the water.

    Big Fish Dispatch Tim Romano 2007

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