girdle

noun

1. That which girds, encircles, or encloses; a circumference.

   “the girdle of the world”

   “Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies”

   “from the world's girdle to the frozen pole”

   “In yonder pensile orb, and every sphere that gems the starry girdle of the year”

2. A belt or sash at the waist, often used to support stockings or hosiery.

   “And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles”

   “O Queen, most exalted of Persia's deep-girdled women, venerable mother of Xerxes, wife of Darius, all hail!”

   “She therefore assumed the novice's garb, so universally worn by young Italians—a robe of black silk, only fastened round the waist by a girdle.”

   “Tradition credits John the Baptist with wearing a girdle fashioned of wormwood, while he was in the wilderness.”

3. A garment used to hold the abdomen, hips, buttocks, and/or thighs in a particular shape.
4. The line of greatest circumference of a brilliant-cut diamond, at which it is grasped by the setting.
5. A thin bed or stratum of stone.
6. The clitellum of an earthworm.
7. The removal or inversion of a ring of bark in order to kill or stunt a tree.
8. (Northern-English, Scotland, alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of griddle.

verb

1. (transitive)To gird, encircle, or constrain by such means.

   “The Equator, as everyone knows, is an imaginary line or circle girdling the Earth half-way between the North and South poles.”

2. (transitive)To kill or stunt a tree by removing or inverting a ring of bark.

   “The ordinary large reddish "hen hawks," which circle high above meadows, are doing great good to the farmer by feeding upon the mice and other creatures which steal his grain and girdle his trees.”