Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Yard

Yard

,
Noun.
[OE.
yerd
, AS.
gierd
,
gyrd
, a rod, stick, a measure, a yard; akin to OFries.
ierde
, OS.
gerda
, D.
garde
, G.
gerte
, OHG.
gartia
,
gerta
,
gart
, Icel.
gaddr
a goad, sting, Goth.
gazds
, and probably to L.
hasta
a spear. Cf.
Gad
,
Noun.
,
Gird
,
Noun.
,
Gride
,
Verb.
I.
,
Hastate
.]
1.
A rod; a stick; a staff.
[Obs.]
P. Plowman.
If men smote it with a
yerde
.
Chaucer.
2.
A branch; a twig.
[Obs.]
The bitter frosts with the sleet and rain
Destroyed hath the green in every
yerd
.
Chaucer.
3.
A long piece of timber, as a rafter, etc.
[Obs.]
4.
A measure of length, equaling three feet, or thirty-six inches, being the standard of English and American measure.
5.
The penis.
6.
(Naut.)
A long piece of timber, nearly cylindrical, tapering toward the ends, and designed to support and extend a square sail. A yard is usually hung by the center to the mast. See Illust. of
Ship
.
Golden Yard
, or
Yard and Ell
(Astron.)
,
a popular name of the three stars in the belt of Orion.
–
Under yard
[i. e., under the rod],
under contract.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Yard

,
Noun.
[OE.
yard
,
yerd
, AS.
geard
; akin to OFries.
garda
garden, OS.
gardo
garden,
gard
yard, D.
gaard
garden, G.
garten
, OHG.
garto
garden,
gari
inclosure, Icel.
garðr
yard, house, Sw.
gård
, Dan.
gaard
, Goth.
gards
a house,
garda
sheepfold, L.
hortus
garden, Gr.
χόρτοσ
an inclosure. Cf.
Court
,
Garden
,
Garth
,
Horticulture
,
Orchard
.]
1.
An inclosure; usually, a small inclosed place in front of, or around, a house or barn;
as, a court
yard
; a cow
yard
; a barn
yard
.
A
yard
. . . inclosed all about with sticks
In which she had a cock, hight chanticleer.
Chaucer.
2.
An inclosure within which any work or business is carried on;
as, a dock
yard
; a ship
yard
.
Liberty of the yard
,
a liberty, granted to persons imprisoned for debt, of walking in the yard, or within any other limits prescribed by law, on their giving bond not to go beyond those limits.
–
Prison yard
,
an inclosure about a prison, or attached to it.
–
Yard grass
(Bot.)
,
a low-growing grass (
Eleusine Indica
) having digitate spikes. It is common in dooryards, and like places, especially in the Southern United States. Called also
crab grass
.
–
Yard of land
.
See
Yardland
.

Yard

,
Verb.
T.
To confine (cattle) to the yard; to shut up, or keep, in a yard;
as, to
yard
cows
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Yard

YARD

,
Noun.
1.
A measure of three feet or thirty six inches. It is just seven niths of the Paris ell.
2.
An inclosure; usually, a small inclosed place in front of or around a house or barn. The yard in front of a house is called a court, and sometimes a court-yard. In the United States, a small yard is fenced round a barn for confining cattle, and called barn-yard or cow-yard.
3.
In ships, a long slender piece of timber, nearly cylindrical, suspended upon the mast, by which a sail is extended.
Yard of land, in old books, a certain quantity of land, but different in different countries. In some counties it was 15 acres, in others 20 or 24, and even 40.
Dock-yard, a place where ships are laid up.
Prison yard, primarily an inclosure about a prison, or attached to it. Hence liberty of the yard, is a liberty granted to persons imprisoned for debt, of walking in the yard, or within any other limits prescribed by the law, on his giving bond not to go beyond those limits.

YARD

,
Verb.
T.
To confine cattle to the yard; as, to yard cows. [A farmers word.]

Definition 2024

Yard

Yard

See also: yard

English

Proper noun

Yard

  1. (with the definite article: the Yard) Scotland Yard or New Scotland Yard
  2. (Jamaica) Jamaica

Derived terms

Anagrams

yard

yard

See also: Yard

English

Noun

yard ‎(plural yards)

  1. A small, usually uncultivated area adjoining or (now especially) within the precincts of a house or other building (Wikipedia).
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.
  2. An enclosed area designated for a specific purpose, e.g. on farms, railways etc.
    • 1931, Francis Beeding, chapter 2/2, in Death Walks in Eastrepps:
      A little further on, to the right, was a large garage, where the charabancs stood, half in and half out of the yard.
  3. A place where moose or deer herd together in winter for pasture, protection, etc.
  4. (Jamaica) One’s house or home.
Translations
Derived terms

See also Yard

Verb

yard ‎(third-person singular simple present yards, present participle yarding, simple past and past participle yarded)

  1. (transitive) To confine to a yard.
    • 1893, Elijah Kellogg, Good old times, or, Grandfather's struggles for a homestead
      As they reached the door, Bose, having yarded the cows, was stealing around the corner of the pig-sty, and making for the woods.

Etymology 2

From Middle English yerd, ȝerd, from Old English gyrd, ġierd, (Anglian) ġerd ‎(“branch; rod, staff; measuring stick; yardland”), from Proto-Germanic *gazdjō, from *gazdaz. Cognate with Dutch gard ‎(“twig”), German Gerte and probably related to Latin hasta ‎(“spear”).[1]

Noun

yard ‎(plural yards)

  1. A unit of length equal to 3 feet in the US customary and British imperial systems of measurement, equal to precisely 0.9144 m since 1959 (US) or 1963 (UK).
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
  2. Units of similar composition or length in other systems.
  3. (nautical) Any spar carried aloft.
    1. (nautical) A long tapered timber hung on a mast to which is bent a sail, and may be further qualified as a square, lateen, or lug yard. The first is hung at right angles to the mast, the latter two hang obliquely.
  4. (obsolete) A branch, twig, or shoot.
  5. (obsolete) A staff, rod, or stick.
  6. (obsolete, medicine) A ****.
  7. (US, slang, uncommon) 100 dollars.
  8. (obsolete) The yardland, an obsolete English unit of land roughly understood as 30 acres.
    • a. 1634, W. Noye, The Complete Lawyer, 57:
      You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land.
  9. (obsolete) The rod, a surveying unit of (once) 15 or (now) 16½ feet.
  10. (obsolete) The rood, area bound by a square rod, ¼ acre.
Hypernyms
Synonyms
  • (arm length): See ell
  • ($100): See hundred
  • (surveying measure): See rod
  • (large unit of area): See virgate
  • (small unit of area): See rood
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

Clipping of French milliard.

Noun

yard ‎(plural yards)

  1. (finance) 109, A short scale billion; a long scale thousand millions or milliard.
    I need to hedge a yard of yen.

Anagrams

References

  1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "yard, n.2". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1921.

French

Noun

yard m ‎(plural yards)

  1. yard (unit of length)

Italian

Noun

yard f ‎(plural yard)

  1. yard (unit of length)

Synonyms

Etymology

From Middle English yard, ȝerd, ȝeard, from Old English ġeard ‎(“yard, garden, fence, enclosure, enclosed place, court, residence, dwelling, home, region, land; hedge”), from Proto-Germanic *gardaz ‎(“enclosure, yard”) (compare Dutch gaard, obsolete German Gart, Swedish gård), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰórdʰos, from *gʰerdʰ- ‎(“to enclose”) (Lithuanian gardas ‎(“pen, enclosure”), Russian го́род ‎(górod, “town”), Albanian gardh ‎(“fence”), Romanian gard, Avestan 𐬔𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬵𐬀 ‎(gərədha, “dev's cave”), Sanskrit गृह ‎(gṛha).

Pronunciation

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