cincture

[singk-cher]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR cincture ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a belt or girdle.

something that surrounds or encompasses as a girdle does; a surrounding border: The midnight sky had a cincture of stars.

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

the act of girding or encompassing.

verb (used with object), cinc·tured, cinc·tur·ing.

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

Origin of cincture

< Latin cinctūra, equivalent to cinct(us) (cinc-, variant stem of cingere to gird, cinch¹ + -tus past participle suffix) + -ūra -ure

Related formsun·cinc·tured, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for cincture

girdle, belt, collar, girth, enclosure, encircle, surrounding

Examples from the Web for cincture

Historical Examples of cincture

Each of us were drawn by him, she with the cincture of Venus, and I with the crescent of Dian.
Ormond, Volume III (of 3)
Charles Brockden Brown
These women had a cincture of cotton about their loins, but were otherwise nude.
Canyons of the Colorado
J. W. Powell
He threw himself back in an arm-chair, tucking his hands into his cincture.
The Cathedral
Joris-Karl Huysmans
Yea, though every knight in the realm essayed to unfasten that cincture, it would not yield, except to one alone.
French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France
Marie de France
Then she applied the antiseptic dressing, and bound the lint tightly down with a cincture about the animal.
The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion With Those of General Napoleon Smith
S. R. Crockett

British Dictionary definitions for cincture

cincture

noun

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

Word Origin for cincture

C16: from Latin cinctūra, from cingere to gird

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cincture

1580s, from Latin cinctura "a girdle," from cinctus, past participle of cingere "to surround, encircle" (see cinch (n.)). The verb is recorded from 1757 (implied in Cinctured).