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girl

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also:Girl

English

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EnglishWikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Agirl (sense 1) with a dog

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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FromMiddle Englishgerle,girle,gyrle(“young person (boy or girl)”), perhaps fromOld English*gyrele,[1] fromProto-West Germanic*gurilā, from a zero-grade diminutive of*gaurā(“young child”) +‎*-ilā. Ultimately of unknown origin.[2][3]Doublet ofgal/gyal andgyaru.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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girl (countable anduncountable,pluralgirls)

  2. Afemalechild.
    I saw a littlegirl feeding, brushing, and talking to a heifer.
  3. (sometimes offensive, see usage note) Awoman, especially ayoung and oftenattractive woman.
    He has a crush on agirl at work. We were kidding with him yesterday about his work crush.
  4. (colloquial)A term of address to a female(see usage notes)
    Synonyms:girlie,lass,lassie
    Hey,girl, I haven't seen you since last week! Where you been?
    • 1889,Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, inUnder the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published1899, page10:
      "My deargirl, what hashe done?" said Mrs. Mallowe, sweetly. It is noticeable that ladies of a certain age call each other "deargirl," just as commissioners of twenty-eight years' standing address their equals in the Civil List as "my boy."
    • 1991 September,Stephen Fry, chapter 1, inThe Liar, London:Heinemann,→ISBN, section I,pages5–6:
      'Now,girls,' continued Healey, 'you're very high-spirited and that's as it should be but I won't have you getting out of hand. […]'[…] Setting aspatted foot on the bench that ran down the middle of the changing-room with elegant distain, Adrian began to flip through a pile ofY-fronts andrugger shorts with his cane.
  5. One'sgirlfriend.
    He lucked out with thatgirl of his. Smart, sweet, sassy, and pretty too.
    • 1922,Edgar Rice Burroughs,TheGirl from Hollywood:
      There isn't any guy going to steal mygirl!
    • 1996, Elizabeth Wong,Kimchee and Chitlins: A Serious Comedy about Getting Along, page74:
      I took mygirl to the cinema to watch your American movies.
    • 2012,Taylor Swift, “Girl at Home”, inRed‎[2], performed by Taylor Swift:
      Don't look at me, you got agirl at home
      And everybody knows that, everybody knows that, ah-ah
      Don't look at me, you got agirl at home
      And everybody knows that
  6. One'sdaughter.
    Yourgirl turned up on our doorstep. She was crying about the argument on the playground. We let her vent.
  7. (especially with a possessive) Afemalefriend.
  8. Afemale non-humananimal,especially, in affectionate address, afemalepet, especially adog.
    Hey, Tricksy, come here,girl! Do you want a treat? Yes, youlove those biscuits, don't you! What a goodgirl! Here's another!
    • 2025 March 9,Australian Cattle Dog Rescue‎[3]:
      Sheila – 9yo Blue Cattle Dog x. Lovelygirl seeks forever home.
  9. (somewhat childish, as a modifier) Afemale (tree, gene, etc).
    Are you getting a boy cat or agirl cat?
    • 1950,Pageant‎[4],page51:
      Are there “boy” trees and “girl” trees? Yes. A number of species, among them the yew, holly and date-bearing palm, have their male and female flowers on different trees. The male holly, for instance, must be planted fairly close to the female ...
    • 1970 [earlier1963], Helen V. Wilson, Helen Van Pelt,Helen Van Pelt's African Violets, Dutton Adult (→ISBN):
      Of the 100 percent total, 25 will have twogirl genes, 50 will have one boy and onegirl gene, and 25 will have two boy genes.
    • 1972,GSN Gesneriad Saintpaulia News: African Violets, Gloxinias, Other Gesneriads and Exotic Plants‎[5], volumes9–10,page37:
      When there are two "girl" genes the plant is agirl dwarf.
  10. (informal) Amachine orvehicle, especially one that the speaker uses often and is fond of.
    The oldgirl ain't as pretty as she once was, but she still purrs like a kitten and still gets out of her own way!
    • 1917 June 29, Les Enfant, “The Trials of Commuter Jones—a Would-Be Pumber”, inMetal Worker, Pumber, and Steam Fitter, volume87, number26, page874:
      Daly came, delved into the oldgirl's inner works, and had her working in jig time.
    • 2017,David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams],Bad Dad, London:HarperCollins Children’s Books,→ISBN:
      “Quiet, everyone!” said Dad as he tried desperately to start the car. GRRR… GRRR… GRRR… Instead of shuddering into life, Queenie let out a low, grinding noise. “Oh no,” said Dad.
      “What?” asked the boy.
      “The engine must have flooded when she went upside down. The poor oldgirl won’t start again now for hours. We’re going to have to walk.”
    • 2013, Rose George,Deep Sea and Foreign Going:
      The tired oldgirl was listing heavily in the heavy seas.
    • 2024, William Halford,POR! Prince of Borland, page58:
      I ran to my car and jumped in. "Come on,girl, start for me, baby!"
  11. A femaleservant; amaid.(see usage notes)
    He assumed that thegirls should clean up his giant mess. We straightened out his misconception.
    Synonyms:char,charlady,charwoman,maid,maiden,maidservant,womanservant
  12. (US, slang, uncountable)Cocaine, especially inpowderform.
    He's the sort of lowlife who snorts coke and refers to it as hisgirl.
    Synonyms:seeThesaurus:cocaine
    • 1969,Iceberg Slim,Pimp: The Story of My Life, Cash Money Content, published2011,→ISBN,page43:
      She had taught me to snortgirl, and almost always when I came to her pad, there would be thin sparkling rows of crystal cocaine on the glass top of the cocktail table.
    • 1977, Odie Hawkins,Chicago Hustle, Holloway House, published1987,→ISBN,page175:
      Elijah nodded congenially to the early evening regulars in the Afro Lounge, headed straight for the telephone hung midway between the mens and womens, his nose smarting from a couple thick lines of recently snortedgirl.
    • 2005, K'wan,Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press,→ISBN,page185:
      After about an hour or two of half-ass sex and snortinggirl, Honey was zoned out.[…] She flexed her still numb fingers, trying to find a warmth that didn't seem to come. Cocaine always made her numb.
    • 2016 July 22, “Bussin” (track 3), in Fenix Flexin (lyrics),Shoreline Mafia (music),Party Pack‎[6]:
      Catch me playing with the plate, yeah I love the sauce
      Whitegirl in my nose, I need to clean it off
    • For more quotations using this term, seeCitations:girl.
  13. (card games, slang, uncommon) Aqueen (theplaying card).
    Are your sure you want to discard that oldgirl?
  14. (UK, dialect, obsolete) Aroebucktwoyearsold.
  15. (obsolete) A child of any gender.

Usage notes

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  • (any woman, regardless of her age): An adult calling an unfamiliar grown woman a "girl" may be considered either a compliment or an insult, depending on context and sensibilities. Even if the word "girl" in most cases is not meant to be derogatory, it may still be patronising sometimes, especially when used to address someone older than oneself.
  • In some cases, the term is used as aeuphemism forvirgin, to distinguish a female who has never engaged insexual intercourse (a "girl") from one who has done so (and is a woman). (For example,She left a girl and came back a woman.)
  • (term of endearment): When used as a term of endearment, it can be used for someone female or, in some contexts, for someone male, such as the use within the gay community.

Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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See also:English terms starting with “girl”

Descendants

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Translations

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young female person
woman—see alsowoman
female servant

Verb

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girl (third-person singular simple presentgirls,present participlegirling,simple past and past participlegirled)

  1. (transitive) Tofeminize orgirlify; togender as a girl or as for girls.
    • 2005, Leerom Medovoi,Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity, page293:
      Quite different is the way in which the tomboygirled the rebel narrative. In recent years, queer theorists have taken a deep interest in the tomboy as a prefigure for the butch dyke.
    • 2011, Stephanie Harzewski,Chick Lit and Postfeminism:
      One can argue that the genre “yuppified” the popular romance novel or perhaps “girled” the not especially gender-specific concept of the young urban professional.
  2. (somewhat informal) Tostaff with or as a girl or girls.
    • 1949,The New Yorker:
      Making our way past a one-girl switchboard temporarilygirled by two frantic operators, we found the victorious president, Elliott A. Bowles, barely visible behind a heap of telegrams [...]
    • 1961,The Georgia Review‎[7], volume15,page228:
      Her first shock came when the ship on which she and her husband arrived was met by three boats “girled” by “great, splendid creatures, as tall as our millionaires' tallest daughters, and as strong-looking as any of our college-girl athletes,” ...
    • 1986, Marcus Cunliffe,The Literature of the United States, New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books,→ISBN:
      She and her Altrurian diplomat husband, arriving there by sea, are greeted by flower-laden boats, each not manned, butgirled by six rowers, who pulled as true a stroke as I ever saw.
    • 2009, Linda Howard,Night Moves: Dream Man/After the Night, Simon and Schuster,→ISBN, page220:
      To her disappointment, the chatty Carlene DuBois wasn't behind the desk; instead it was manned—orgirled—by a frothy little blonde who barely looked old enough to be out of high school.

See also

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References

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  1. ^“girl(e,n.”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007: “?OE *gyrela, from earlier *gurw-”.
  2. ^Friedrich Kluge (1989), “Gör”, inEtymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter,→ISBN, page272
  3. ^Torp, Alf (1919), “Gorre”, inNynorsk Etymologisk Ordbok, Oslo: H. Aschehoug and Co. (W. Nygaard), page176
  4. ^Jespersen, Otto (1909),A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎[1], volume I: Sounds and Spellings,London:George Allen & Unwin, published1961,§ 12.63,page351.

Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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FromEnglishgirl.Doublet ofgow.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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girl f (pluralgirls)

  1. dancing girl

Further reading

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Scots

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Etymology

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Metathesis ofgrill(“shudder (with horror, dread, etc), shiver (as on hearing a grating sound”), from Old Scotsgril, fromMiddle Englishgrillen(“shudder, quake, be afraid; enrage”), fromOld Englishgriellan, grillan(“offend, annoy; gnash one's teeth at”).

Verb

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girl

  1. to shiver or shudder
  2. to tingle unpleasantly, when hearing a grating noise or biting into an acidic or unripe fruit
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