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🛡️ To get ready 🪢 To tie around
to gird

to gird

7 9.2
To prepare yourself for a difficult or dangerous event
  • verb
  • /ɡɜrd/
  • Formal
translation icon : prepararse
  • As the front door opens, Paul girds himself for attack.

We can look for the codes and the cues and just gird and prepare ourselves.

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Examples

  • Orson leaped onto the footstool and then curled up on the armchair to watch me as I girded myself for the sunlit world.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Gird me for battle against the swords of my enemies.

    Samson and Delilah (1949)

  • You must gird yourself for blood in the streets.

    Dear Dictator (2018)

  • And gird me with strength unto battle.

    Season of the Witch (2011)

  • Yes, I must gird my loins for battle.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Almost without a word, Americans gird for a conflict modern-day Americans can feel in their bones.

    Blog text (1)

  • You must saddle your steeds, gird up your armor, gather your allies!

    The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

  • When President Obama talks to young people, that's the message he uses to gird them against cynicism.

    Academic text (2016)

  • Yet the PRI and its captive unions are back, still with enormous political power, and the independent unions are girding for battle.

    Academic text (2012)

  • As the troops prepared for the invasion, they knew they had to gird themselves for the challenges ahead.

Synonyms

to arm
vsto gird
119 3.7

To give weapons to people or prepare for fighting

focuses on personal preparation beyond merely supplying weapons
to fortify
vsto gird
39 6.2

Make a place or group stronger by building defenses

applies to preparing a person for confrontation rather than fixing locations
to build up
vsto gird
  • Specialized
23 5.7

Make soldiers and weapons stronger before a fight

is about preparing oneself personally rather than building larger force strength
to steel oneself for
vsto gird
3 7.5

To prepare yourself mentally for something difficult or unpleasant

is more about physical or tactical readiness for confrontation

Antonyms

to retreat
235 4.0

To move back from a place or plan to avoid danger

surrender
77 4.2

Giving up after defeat, for example when an army stops fighting

How Prepared

to gird
  • Formal
7 9.2
to prepare
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

gird infinitive
girded past
girded past participle
girding present participle
girds third person singular

Etymology

Gird also came to mean 'to prepare' from the image of tightening a belt before work or battle. A helpful way to remember it is the phrase 'gird your loins': like fastening a belt to get ready, to gird yourself is to prepare for a challenge.