yard1
- a common unit of linear measure in English-speaking countries, equal to 3 feet or 36 inches, and equivalent to 0.9144 meter.
- Nautical. a long spar, supported more or less at its center, to which the head of a square sail, lateen sail, or lugsail is bent.
- yard-of-ale.
- Informal. a large quantity or extent.
- Slang. one hundred or, usually, one thousand dollars.
- the whole nine yards, Informal.
- everything that is pertinent, appropriate, or available.
- in all ways; in every respect; all the way: If you want to run for mayor, I'll be with you the whole nine yards.
Origin of yard1
yard2
- the ground that immediately adjoins or surrounds a house, public building, or other structure.
- an enclosed area outdoors, often paved and surrounded by or adjacent to a building; court.
- an outdoor enclosure designed for the exercise of students, inmates, etc.: a prison yard.
- an outdoor space surrounded by a group of buildings, as on a college campus.
- a pen or other enclosure for livestock.
- an enclosure within which any work or business is carried on (often used in combination): navy yard; a brickyard.
- an outside area used for storage, assembly, or the like.
- Railroads. a system of parallel tracks, crossovers, switches, etc., where cars are switched and made up into trains and where cars, locomotives, and other rolling stock are kept when not in use or when awaiting repairs.
- a piece of ground set aside for cultivation; garden; field.
- the winter pasture or browsing ground of moose and deer.
- the Yard, British. Scotland Yard(def 2).
- to put into, enclose, or store in a yard.
Origin of yard2
Related Words
lawngardenpatchcourtyardplaygroundlotbackyardgrasspatiocourtbarnyardquadrangleclearingcorralfoldterracecloseenclosureExamples from the Web for yard
Contemporary Examples
Parker writes of the “black-faced doe” that he sees in the yard in his new Texas house.
Just right for that person who needs a little creative push to do something daring in their yard.
Later that day he made a call from the row of phones in the yard and reached his wife for the first time in six months.
The victim was himself dangerous, and also the strongest man in the yard.
Scotland Yard released a video of the extraordinary crime in an appeal for anyone who recognizes the man to come forward.
Historical Examples
Just then Ben Haley, looking from the window, saw some chickens in the yard.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
But when K., growing uneasy, came out into the yard, the engine had started at last.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
Seeing the crowd, Wilson drove directly to the yard and parked his machine.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
And if I had seen a sheet flying around the yard I would have picked it up.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
But I has not a man in the yard as can ride since Will died.
Night and Morning, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
yard1
- a unit of length equal to 3 feet and defined in 1963 as exactly 0.9144 metreAbbreviation: yd
- a cylindrical wooden or hollow metal spar, tapered at the ends, slung from a mast of a square-rigged or lateen-rigged vessel and used for suspending a sail
- short for yardstick (def. 2)
- put in the hard yards Australian informal to make a great effort to achieve an end
- the whole nine yards informal everything that is required; the whole thing
Word Origin
yard2
- a piece of enclosed ground, usually either paved or laid with concrete and often adjoining or surrounded by a building or buildings
- an enclosed or open area used for some commercial activity, for storage, etca railway yard
- (in combination)a brickyard; a shipyard
- a US and Canadian word for garden (def. 1)
- an area having a network of railway tracks and sidings, used for storing rolling stock, making up trains, etc
- US and Canadian the winter pasture of deer, moose, and similar animals
- Australian and NZ an enclosed area used to draw off part of a herd, etc
- NZ short for saleyard, stockyard
- to draft (animals), esp to a saleyard
Word Origin
Yard
- the Yard British informal short for Scotland Yard
Word Origin and History for yard
n.1
"ground around a house," Old English geard "enclosure, garden, court, house, yard," from Proto-Germanic *garda (cf. Old Norse garðr "enclosure, garden, yard;" Old Frisian garda, Dutch gaard, Old High German garto, German Garten "garden;" Gothic gards "house," garda "stall"), from PIE *gharto-, from root *gher- "to grasp, enclose" (cf. Old English gyrdan "to gird," Sanskrit ghra- "house," Albanian garth "hedge," Latin hortus "garden," Phrygian -gordum "town," Greek khortos "pasture," Old Irish gort "field," Breton garz "enclosure, garden," and second element in Latin cohors "enclosure, yard, company of soldiers, multitude").
Lithuanian gardas "pen, enclosure," Old Church Slavonic gradu "town, city," and Russian gorod, -grad "town, city" belong to this group, but linguists dispute whether they are independent developments or borrowings from Germanic. Yard sale is attested by 1976. Middle English yerd "yard-land" (mid-15c.) was a measure of about 30 acres.
n.2
measure of length, Old English gerd (Mercian), gierd (West Saxon) "rod, stick, measure of length," from West Germanic *gazdijo, from Proto-Germanic *gazdaz "stick, rod" (cf. Old Saxon gerda, Old Frisian ierde, Dutch gard "rod;" Old High German garta, German gerte "switch, twig," Old Norse gaddr "spike, sting, nail"), from PIE *gherdh- "staff, pole" (cf. Latin hasta "shaft, staff"). The nautical yardarm retains the original sense of "stick."
Originally in Anglo-Saxon times a land measure of roughly 5 meters (a length later called rod, pole, or perch). Modern measure of "three feet" is attested from late 14c. (earlier rough equivalent was the ell of 45 inches, and the verge). In Middle English, the word also was a euphemism for "penis" (cf. "Love's Labour's Lost," V.ii.676). Slang meaning "one hundred dollars" first attested 1926, American English.
yard
- A unit of length in the US Customary System equal to 3 feet or 36 inches (0.91 meter). See Table at measurement.
Idioms and Phrases with yard
yard
see all wool and a yard wide; in one's own back yard; whole nine yards.