girdle (1)

(GRIDDLE, s.] (Scotch.) Spaeing by the girdle : A mode of divination, still occasionally practiced in Scotland, especially for discovering who has stolen anything that is mi ing. ( Jamie son .) gir-dle (2), *ger-dle, *ger-del, *ger-dul, *girdel, *gir-dil, *gur-del, *gur-dil, *gur-dle, s. [A. S. gyrdel ; cogn. with Icel. gyrdhill ; Dut. gordel; Sw. gördel ; Ger. gürtel .] I. Ordinary Language : 1. That which girds or binds; a band or belt; anything drawn round the waist and buckled or otherwise fastened. *2. The equator. "From the world's girdle to the frozen pole." Cowper: Expostulation, 20. *3. An enclosure; a circumference. "Suppose within the girdle of these walls, Are now confined two mighty monarchies." Shakesp.: Henry V. (Prologue.) 14. Anything which serves to hold or keep together other things; a bond. "Trade is the golden girdle of the globe." II. Technically : Cowper: Charity , 86. 1. Anat .: An arch or anything similar, transversely uniting the right and left sides of the body. There is a shoulder and a pelvic girdle. 2. Arch .: A small circular band or fillet round the shaft of a column. 3. Diamond-cutting: The point of greatest marginal circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting. The projecting portion, rising about the setting, is the bizet, and has one-third of the depth of the stone. It has IMG:content-0473.png:[blocks in formation] *3. To embrace. 4. To make a cut round the trunk of a tree, through the bark and alburnum, so as to kill it. B. In trans.: To surround; to form a girdle or circle round.