ppl. a. Firmly encircled or secured by a girdle or girth; esp., after Gr. εὔζωνος (ἀνήρ), girt up for exercise, in good trim for walking; hence fig. (of time) strenuously bestowed.
1647. N. Ward, Simple Cobler, 88. A well-girt houre gives every man content.
1798. Wordsw., Idiot Boy, 39. The well-girt saddle.
1816. Southey, Poet’s Pilgr., I. iii. 1. Some three hours’ journey for a well-girt man.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 57. To be Homerically well girt … is half the battle for the traveller in Spain.
1881. Saintsbury, Dryden, i. 3. A well-girt man can survey the whole in a day’s walk.
b. transf. of a building or stronghold.
1756. Home, Douglas, IV. i. The trembling mothers, and their children [are] lodg’d In well-girt towers and castles.
