yard

1
[ yahrd ]
See synonyms for yard on Thesaurus.com
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.

  1. yard-of-ale.

  2. Informal. a large quantity or extent.

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

Idioms about yard

  1. 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 yard

1
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”

Other definitions for yard (2 of 2)

yard2
[ yahrd ]
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.

  1. 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.

  2. an outdoor enclosure designed for the exercise of students, inmates, etc.: a prison yard.

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

  4. a pen or other enclosure for livestock.

  5. an enclosure within which any work or business is carried on (often used in combination): navy yard; a brickyard.

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

  7. 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.

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

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

  10. the Yard, British. Scotland Yard (def. 2).

verb (used with object)

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

Origin of yard

2
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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use yard in a sentence

  • The doctor, a little puzzled, took his leave, but had not gone ten yards when the housekeeper flew screaming after him.

    Uncanny Tales | Various

  • About three o'clock, as nearly as I could tell, we dipped into a wooded creek bottom some two hundred yards in width.

    Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair

  • It was a hippopotamus which had been standing on the river-brink within six yards of the muzzle of his gun.

    Hunting the Lions | R.M. Ballantyne

  • A mushir (marshal) would find it derogatory to his dignity to smoke out of a stem less than two yards in length.

  • I still think we might have done as well at much less cost by creeping up these 200 or 300 yards by night.

British Dictionary definitions for yard (1 of 3)

yard1

/ (jɑːd) /

noun

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

  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

  1. short for yardstick (def. 2)

  2. put in the hard yards Australian informal to make a great effort to achieve an end

  3. the whole nine yards informal everything that is required; the whole thing

Origin of yard

1
Old English gierd rod, twig; related to Old Frisian jerde, Old Saxon gerdia, Old High German gertia, Old Norse gaddr

British Dictionary definitions for yard (2 of 3)

yard2

/ (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

    • an enclosed or open area used for some commercial activity, for storage, etc: a railway yard

    • (in combination): a brickyard; a shipyard

  1. a US and Canadian word for garden (def. 1)

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

  3. US and Canadian the winter pasture of deer, moose, and similar animals

  4. Australian and NZ an enclosed area used to draw off part of a herd, etc

  5. NZ short for saleyard, stockyard

verb(tr)

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

Origin of yard

2
Old English geard; related to Old Saxon gard, Old High German gart, Old Norse garthr yard, Gothic gards house, Old Slavonic gradu town, castle, Albanian garth hedge

British Dictionary definitions for Yard (3 of 3)

Yard

/ (jɑːd) /

noun

  1. the Yard British informal short for Scotland Yard

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

Scientific definitions for yard

yard

[ yärd ]

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

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with yard

yard

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

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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