yard1

[yahrd] /yɑrd/
noun
1.
a common unit of linear measure in English-speaking countries, equal to 3 feet or 36 inches, and equivalent to 0.9144 meter.
2.
Nautical. a long spar, supported more or less at its center, to which the head of a square sail, lateen sail, or lugsail is bent.
3.
yard-of-ale.
4.
Informal. a large quantity or extent.
5.
Slang. one hundred or, usually, one thousand dollars.
Idioms
6.
the whole nine yards, Informal.
  1. everything that is pertinent, appropriate, or available.
  2. in all ways; in every respect; all the way:
    If you want to run for mayor, I'll be with you the whole nine yards.
Origin
before 900; Middle English yerd(e), Old English (Anglian) gerd orig., straight twig; cognate with Dutch gard, German Gerte rod

yard2

[yahrd] /yɑrd/
noun
1.
the ground that immediately adjoins or surrounds a house, public building, or other structure.
2.
an enclosed area outdoors, often paved and surrounded by or adjacent to a building; court.
3.
an outdoor enclosure designed for the exercise of students, inmates, etc.:
a prison yard.
4.
an outdoor space surrounded by a group of buildings, as on a college campus.
5.
a pen or other enclosure for livestock.
6.
an enclosure within which any work or business is carried on (often used in combination):
navy yard; a brickyard.
7.
an outside area used for storage, assembly, or the like.
8.
Railroads. a system of parallel tracks, crossovers, switches, etc., where cars are switched and made up into trains and where cars, locomotives, and other rolling stock are kept when not in use or when awaiting repairs.
9.
a piece of ground set aside for cultivation; garden; field.
10.
the winter pasture or browsing ground of moose and deer.
11.
the Yard, British, Scotland Yard (def 2).
verb (used with object)
12.
to put into, enclose, or store in a yard.
Origin
before 900; Middle English yerd, Old English geard enclosure; cognate with Dutch gaard garden, Old Norse garthr yard, Gothic gards house, Latin hortus garden, Old Irish gort field; akin to garden
Examples from the web for yard
  • Not in my back yard complainers, should have all the gas stations in their area closed.
  • Our yard is a lot more open, and it also back up to a wide open area.
  • However, without the right tactics in place it is inevitable that your yard will become infested.
  • There was a house with a yard, and these together took up half an acre.
  • However, they are broadcasting their signal into my yard without my request or permission.
  • But moving the railway yard to another community, and thus polluting it, is not the answer.
  • The corners of many housing plots serve as a kind of knacker's yard for lamed vehicles.
  • If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch to cut government by a yard, they will still say no.
  • At a time when technologies no larger than dust motes are reshaping the planet, this strange wrecking yard is morbidly compelling.
  • Teaching kids is good because insects are good for the garden and your yard.
British Dictionary definitions for yard

yard1

/jɑːd/
noun
1.
a unit of length equal to 3 feet and defined in 1963 as exactly 0.9144 metre yd
2.
a cylindrical wooden or hollow metal spar, tapered at the ends, slung from a mast of a square-rigged or lateen-rigged vessel and used for suspending a sail
3.
short for yardstick (sense 2)
4.
(Austral, informal) put in the hard yards, to make a great effort to achieve an end
5.
(informal) the whole nine yards, everything that is required; the whole thing
Word Origin
Old English gierd rod, twig; related to Old Frisian jerde, Old Saxon gerdia, Old High German gertia, Old Norse gaddr

yard2

/jɑːd/
noun
1.
a piece of enclosed ground, usually either paved or laid with concrete and often adjoining or surrounded by a building or buildings
2.
  1. an enclosed or open area used for some commercial activity, for storage, etc: a railway yard
  2. (in combination): a brickyard, a shipyard
3.
a US and Canadian word for garden (sense 1)
4.
an area having a network of railway tracks and sidings, used for storing rolling stock, making up trains, etc
5.
(US & Canadian) the winter pasture of deer, moose, and similar animals
6.
(Austral & NZ) an enclosed area used to draw off part of a herd, etc
7.
(NZ) short for saleyard, stockyard
verb (transitive)
8.
to draft (animals), esp to a saleyard
Word Origin
Old English geard; related to Old Saxon gard, Old High German gart, Old Norse garthr yard, Gothic gards house, Old Slavonic gradu town, castle, Albanian garth hedge

Yard

/jɑːd/
noun
1.
(Brit, informal) the Yard, short for Scotland Yard
Word Origin and History for yard
n.

"ground around a house," Old English geard "enclosure, garden, court, house, yard," from Proto-Germanic *garda (cf. Old Norse garðr "enclosure, garden, yard;" Old Frisian garda, Dutch gaard, Old High German garto, German Garten "garden;" Gothic gards "house," garda "stall"), from PIE *gharto-, from root *gher- "to grasp, enclose" (cf. Old English gyrdan "to gird," Sanskrit ghra- "house," Albanian garth "hedge," Latin hortus "garden," Phrygian -gordum "town," Greek khortos "pasture," Old Irish gort "field," Breton garz "enclosure, garden," and second element in Latin cohors "enclosure, yard, company of soldiers, multitude").

Lithuanian gardas "pen, enclosure," Old Church Slavonic gradu "town, city," and Russian gorod, -grad "town, city" belong to this group, but linguists dispute whether they are independent developments or borrowings from Germanic. Yard sale is attested by 1976. Middle English yerd "yard-land" (mid-15c.) was a measure of about 30 acres.

measure of length, Old English gerd (Mercian), gierd (West Saxon) "rod, stick, measure of length," from West Germanic *gazdijo, from Proto-Germanic *gazdaz "stick, rod" (cf. Old Saxon gerda, Old Frisian ierde, Dutch gard "rod;" Old High German garta, German gerte "switch, twig," Old Norse gaddr "spike, sting, nail"), from PIE *gherdh- "staff, pole" (cf. Latin hasta "shaft, staff"). The nautical yardarm retains the original sense of "stick."

Originally in Anglo-Saxon times a land measure of roughly 5 meters (a length later called rod, pole, or perch). Modern measure of "three feet" is attested from late 14c. (earlier rough equivalent was the ell of 45 inches, and the verge). In Middle English, the word also was a euphemism for "penis" (cf. "Love's Labour's Lost," V.ii.676). Slang meaning "one hundred dollars" first attested 1926, American English.

yard in Science
yard
  (yärd)   
A unit of length in the US Customary System equal to 3 feet or 36 inches (0.91 meter). See Table at measurement.
Slang definitions & phrases for yard

yard 1

noun

A hundred dollars; a $100 bill: ''Mac, what you payin' for this?'' Stony looked around the room. ''A yard and ahalf ''

Related Terms

half a yard

[1926+; fr the unit of measure]


yard 2

verb

To be sexually unfaithful; cheat: She told him she didn't like to yard on her man

Related Terms

the back yard

[1960+ Black; said to be fr the phrase backyard woman, ''mistress, illicit sex partner'']


Idioms and Phrases with yard

yard

see: