v. Also 7 ingird. Pa. pple. engirt. [f. EN-1 + GIRD v.] trans. To surround with, or as with, a girdle; to encircle, as a girdle does. Also, To engird in.

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1566.  Gascoigne, Iocasta, ii. in Child, Four Old P. (1848), 190. Let cruell discorde beare thee companie, Engirt with snakes.

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1623.  trans. Favine’s Theat. Hon., I. i. 7. Round about engirt with a frindge of Gold.

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1628.  Hobbes, Thucyd., 154. Paches … arriued at Mitylene, and ingirt it with a single wall.

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1745.  W. Thompson, Sickness, II. Poems (1757), 234 (R.). She saw him smile along the tissu’d Clouds,… Engirt with Cherub-wings.

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a. 1785.  Glover, Athenaid, xxvii. 265 (1787), III. 176 (R.). A sash of tincture bright … Engirds his loins.

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1813.  Wordsw., View fr. Top of Black Comb. Main ocean … visibly engirding Mona’s Isle.

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1820.  Moir, in Blackw. Mag., VI. 385. The hoary mountain tops … that engird the horizon in.

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1851.  Nichol, Archit. Heav., 22. He would manifestly be engirt by heavens having the general aspect of ours.

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  b.  fig.

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1586.  Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., V. ii. Ugly Darkness … Engirt with tempests, wrapt in pitchy clouds.

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1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. i. 200. My Body round engyrt with miserie.

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1798.  W. Taylor, in Robberds’ Mem., I. 219. Engird their brows With glittering crowns of praise.

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  Hence Engirding ppl. a.

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1852.  D. Moir, Defeat Winter, viii. Love, with an engirding belt, Hath beautified the solitude.

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