Engirded

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To completely surround or encircle an object or area
2. To form a boundary or fence around something
3. To encompass or envelop something on all sides

Etymology: "Engirded" is the past form of "engird," which means to encircle or surround something. The verb is built from the prefix "en-," meaning "in" or "into," and "gird," an older English word for a band or belt wrapped around the body. Putting the two together gives the sense of putting a band around something, so a thing that is engirded has been ringed on every side. The base word "gird" once meant to strike, and only later came to mean to fasten a belt or girdle around the waist, the sense behind the verb "to gird oneself" for battle. That bodily image of a belt cinched around the middle is what "engird" carries into its figurative use, where a wall, a range of hills, or a river might be said to engird a town.

Synonyms: encircled, surrounded