begird

American  

[bih-gurd] / bɪˈgɜrd /

verb (used with object)

begirt, begirded, begirding

1. to gird about; encompass; surround.

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begird British  

/ bɪˈɡɜːd /

verb

1. to surround; gird around

2. to bind

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Etymology

Origin of begird

before 900; Middle English begirden, Old English begierdan. See be-, gird ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

begird begirded begirt

Till like a cold gust thrilled the little word At which each body and its soul begird And tighten them for battle.

From Poems by Wilfred Owen

Neither the nurse who comes at dawn to visit her nursling E'er shall avail her neck to begird with yesterday's ribband.

From The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus by Sir Richard Francis Burton

In the mean time the eyes of her sister Grace Margaret had roamed disapprovingly over Genevieve Maud's white dress, the blue sash that begirded her middle, the rampant bow on her hair.

From Many Kingdoms by Elizabeth Garver Jordan

The crags were begirt with icicles, reaching down many feet and brilliant with elusive prismatic glimmers.

From The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains by Mary Noailles Murfree

I know why the elephant by a thick skin And a tough one is ever begirt: It is so when he's struck by the trainer's crowbar, He can laugh in his trunk all unhurt.

From Harper's Round Table, June 4, 1895 by Various

From where we stood we could ferret out a house with a veranda in front, built on a terrace and begirt with trees.

From Romantic Spain A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II) by John Augustus O'Shea

Like a child in the cradle,” continued Hanna, pointing to the pool begirt by dark maples and weeping-willows, whose melancholy branches drooped in the water.

From The Mantle and Other Stories by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

On earth, “a tawny sibyl,” with “an old striped curtain—” And tatter’d tapestry o’er her shoulders hung— Her loins with patchwork cincture were begirt, That more than spoke diversity of dirt.

From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Isaac Disraeli