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• yard
  yard

  noun

  a common unit of linear measure in English-speaking countries, equal to 3 feet or 36 inches, and equivalent to 0.9144 meter.
• Yard
  Yard

  noun

  short for Scotland Yard

yard

¹ American  

[yahrd] / jɑrd /

noun

1. a common unit of linear measure in English-speaking countries, equal to 3 feet or 36 inches, and equivalent to 0.9144 meter.

2. 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.

3. yard-of-ale.

4. Informal. a large quantity or extent.

5. Slang. one hundred or, usually, one thousand dollars.

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idioms

1. the whole nine yards,

   1. everything that is pertinent, appropriate, or available.

   2. 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.

yard ² American  

[yahrd] / jɑrd /

noun

1. the ground that immediately adjoins or surrounds a house, public building, or other structure.

2. an enclosed area outdoors, often paved and surrounded by or adjacent to a building; court.

3. ballpark.

   It’s been a long road trip for the Mariners, and they’ll be glad to get back to their own yard on Tuesday.

4. an outdoor enclosure designed for the exercise of students, inmates, etc..

   a prison yard.

5. an outdoor space surrounded by a group of buildings, as on a college campus.

6. a pen or other enclosure for livestock.

7. an enclosure within which any work or business is carried on (often used in combination).

   navy yard; a brickyard.

8. an outside area used for storage, assembly, or the like.

9. 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.

10. a piece of ground set aside for cultivation; garden; field.

11. the winter pasture or browsing ground of moose and deer.

12. British. the Yard, Scotland Yard.

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verb (used with object)

• yards,
  present (3rd person singular)
• yarded,
  past participle,  past
• yarding
  present participle

1. to put into, enclose, or store in a yard.

idioms

1. go yard, to hit a home run.

   It looks as if he may go yard with this one—and he does, just inches from the foul pole!

yard ¹ British  

/ jɑːd /

noun

1. a piece of enclosed ground, usually either paved or laid with concrete and often adjoining or surrounded by a building or buildings

2. 1. an enclosed or open area used for some commercial activity, for storage, etc

      a railway yard

   2. ( in combination )

      a brickyard

      a shipyard

3. a US and Canadian word for garden

4. an area having a network of railway tracks and sidings, used for storing rolling stock, making up trains, etc

5. the winter pasture of deer, moose, and similar animals

6. an enclosed area used to draw off part of a herd, etc

7. short for saleyard stockyard

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verb

1. to draft (animals), esp to a saleyard

Yard ² British  

/ jɑːd /

noun

1. informal short for Scotland Yard

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yard ³ British  

/ jɑːd /

noun

1.  yd.  a unit of length equal to 3 feet and defined in 1963 as exactly 0.9144 metre

2. 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

3. short for yardstick

4. informal to make a great effort to achieve an end

5. informal everything that is required; the whole thing

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yard Scientific  

/ yärd /

1. A unit of length in the US Customary System equal to 3 feet or 36 inches (0.91 meter).

2. See Table at measurement

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yard More Idioms  

1. see all wool and a yard wide; in one's own back yard; whole nine yards.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• yarding
  present
• yarded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• yard
  simple
• yards
  simple
• have yarded
  perfect
• has yarded
  perfect
• am yarding
  progressive
• are yarding
  progressive
• is yarding
  progressive
• have been yarding
  perfect progressive
• has been yarding
  perfect progressive

Past

• yarded
  simple
• had yarded
  perfect
• was yarding
  progressive
• were yarding
  progressive
• had been yarding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will yard
  simple
• will have yarded
  perfect
• will be yarding
  progressive
• will have been yarding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of yard¹

First recorded before 950; Middle English yerd(e), yard(e) “stick, pole, rod,” Old English gird, gierd, gerd “bough, staff, rod”; cognate with Dutch gard, German Gerte “rod, twig”

Origin of yard²

First recorded before 900; Middle English yerd(e), yard(e), Old English geard “enclosure”; cognate with Dutch gaard “garden,” Old Norse garthr “yard,” Gothic gards “house,” Latin hortus “garden,” Greek chórtos “enclosure, court,” Old Irish gort “field,” Slavic (Polish) gród “castle, town”; akin to garden, garth ( def. )

Explanation

The grassy area right outside a house is a yard. A yard is often surrounded by a fence or marked by shrubs or other plants. As a unit of measurement, a yard is equal to three feet. Most suburban houses have both a front yard and a back yard — sometimes side yards too. Yards might have grass, trees, bushes, play structures, gardens, patios, and decks. A completely different kind of yard is the unit of measurement that equals three feet. This three-foot yard comes from a Germanic root meaning "rod or staff," while the yard behind your house has a root that means "to enclose."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yard Yard yards yarded yarding

UK warship to be largely built in Spain as H&W yard 'not ready'

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Other defensible space requirements have been on the books for decades, and dictate how homeowners must manage their yard through the spacing of trees, the removal of dead vegetation and other precautions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

"The action that the leadership team at Ferguson Marine is taking today is necessary to help secure a viable future for the yard, and that of commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde," he said.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

Boney Island, a playful homage to Coney Island, was born in the late 1990s when Polizzi set out to build a Halloween attraction in his Sherman Oaks front yard for his family and neighbors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

It’s impossible to believe that this is the boy who kissed me in the yard, wove his fingers through mine, laughed into my ear.

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

Washington Navy Yard, 2012: I got invited to college friend Rear Adm.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Jeff Bartlett had good reason for his tears during a second viewing at Norfolk Southern’s Rose Yard in Altoona.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Earlier this year, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice held an exhibition at Art Space Huntington Park called “We Are Water” to uplift local Indigenous artists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

McNeal, who’s on the Yard with me today, had a limited POV of his own climb: “I ran up. I was on the base. I was there for all hour-and-forty-four minutes that we were there.”

From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026

Using their clout with the downtown police department, they posted three hundred mounted police in the Stock Yard to break up union gatherings.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield

Corey Hinton, who played at St. John Bosco last season, goes 54 yards for TD with 6:49 left.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Whether it was because a threadbare backroom team was overworked, or England's overall attitude was not good enough, Smith was rarely seen doing the hard yards with the gloves on.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

Ethan Evans averaged 48.5 yards for two punts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

He did rally the Braves and ended up with 210 yards passing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

And yet somehow they both know how many yards make a first down and what “pass interference” is, better than me.

From "Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun" by Hena Khan

Often on horseback, he yarded and penned cattle.

From Time Magazine Archive

When Atik returned, Miyax told him he did not need to go to the mountains—that a large herd was yarded not far up the river.

From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George

If stabled or yarded, cows should have access to water at all times, or have it frequently offered to them.

From American Woman's Home by Catharine Esther Beecher

When the cattle had been yarded, Ramon's father said that they would go and have breakfast.

From How We are Fed A Geographical Reader by James Franklin Chamberlain

In their native haunts bears are as little given to loud talk as other animals; but in roomy and comfortable captivity, where many are yarded together, they rapidly develop vocal powers.

From The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals A Book of Personal Observations by William Temple Hornaday

The sharp fuss of grown-ups, issued from porches at the rowdy barefoot yarding of neighborhood kids, rises over the chatter of rocking chairs, to contend with manic squeals and out-of-breath laughter.

From Salon ● May 10, 2024

What triggers whitetails to move to winter yarding areas?

From Time Magazine Archive

Farther south, yarding may occur only during years when the weather is more severe.

From Time Magazine Archive

For example, in northern Wisconsin, researchers have shown that individual does may remain on summer range during mild winters but will move to yarding areas when heavy snows and cold temperatures develop.

From Time Magazine Archive

On all large sheep-farms, convenience requires that there be one barn of considerable size, to contain the shearing-floor, and the necessary conveniences about it for yarding the sheep, etc.

From Sheep, Swine, and Poultry Embracing the History and Varieties of Each; The Best Modes of Breeding; Their Feeding and Management; Together with etc. by Robert Jennings

Related Words

• backyard
• courtyard
• garden
• grass
• lawn
• lot
• patch
• patio
• playground