cincture

American  

[singk-cher] / ˈsɪŋk tʃər /

noun

1. a belt or girdle.

2. something that surrounds or encompasses as a girdle does; a surrounding border.

   The midnight sky had a cincture of stars.

3. (on a classical column) a fillet at either end of a shaft, especially one at the lower end.

4. the act of girding or encompassing.

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verb (used with object)

cinctured, cincturing

1. to gird with or as if with a cincture; encircle; encompass.

cincture British  

/ ˈsɪŋktʃə /

noun

1. something that encircles or surrounds, esp a belt, girdle, or border

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Other Word Forms

• uncinctured
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of cincture

< Latin cinctūra, equivalent to cinct ( us ) ( cinc-, variant stem of cingere to gird, cinch ¹ + -tus past participle suffix) + -ūra -ure

Example Sentences

Cincture, singk′tūr, n. a girdle or belt: a moulding round a column.—v.t. to gird, encompass.—adjs.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

And yet again they sang: The Cincture, little man, ’Twixt Holland and Belgium— Firm Alliance, And beautiful Friendship.

From The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders and elsewhere by Coster, Charles de

And the spirits kept on singing: Listen now, attend and see, Love the Seven, And the Cincture.

From The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders and elsewhere by Coster, Charles de

Such of late Columbus found th' American to girt With featherd Cincture, naked else and wilde Among the Trees on Iles and woodie Shores.

From The Poetical Works of John Milton by Milton, John

Cincture is that part which makes the middle of the Ballustre of the Ionick Voluta.

From An Abridgment of the Architecture of Vitruvius Containing a System of the Whole Works of that Author by Perrault, Claude