Yard

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /jɑː(ɹ)d/
• US enPR: yärd, IPA: /jɑːɹd/

From Middle English yard, ȝerd, ȝeard, from Old English ġeard ("yard, garden, fence, enclosure, enclosed place, court, residence, dwelling, home, region, land; hedge"), from Proto-Germanic *gardaz ("enclosure, yard") (compare Dutch gaard, obsolete German Gart, Swedish gård), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰórdʰos or *ǵʰortós, from *ǵʰer- ("to enclose") (compare Old Irish gort ("wheat field"), Latin hortus ("garden"), Tocharian B kerccī ("palace"), Lithuanian gardas ("pen, enclosure"), Russian город (górod, "town"), Albanian gardh ("fence"), Romanian gard, Ancient Greek χόρτος (chórtos, "farmyard"), Avestan (gərədha, "dev's cave"), Sanskrit (gŗhás).

Full definition of yard

Noun

1. A small, usually uncultivated area adjoining or (now especially) within the precincts of a house or other building (Yard (land)).
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, 'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.
2. An enclosed area designated for a specific purpose, e.g. on farms, railways etc.
• 1931, w, Death Walks in Eastrepps Chapter 2/2, A little further on, to the right, was a large garage, where the charabancs stood, half in and half out of the yard.
3. (Jamaica) One’s house or home.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive) To confine to a yard.
• 1893, Elijah Kellogg, Good old times, or, Grandfather's struggles for a homesteadAs they reached the door, Bose, having yarded the cows, was stealing around the corner of the pig-sty, and making for the woods.

From Middle English yerd, ȝerd, from Old English ġierd, ġerd ("yard, rod, staff, stake, fagot, twig; measure of length"), from Proto-Germanic *gazdijō. Cognate with Dutch gard ("twig"), German Gerte.

Noun

1. (nautical) A long tapered timber hung on a mast to which is bent a sail, and may be further qualified as a square, lateen, or lug yard. The first is hung at right angles to the mast, the latter two hang obliquely.
2. (nautical) Any spar carried aloft (Yard (sailing)).
3. A staff, rod or stick.
4. A unit of length equal to three feet (exactly 0.9144 metres in the US and UK; Yard).
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ ....” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
5. (US, slang) One hundred dollars.
6. (obsolete) The penis.
• 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.12:there were some people found who tooke pleasure to unhood the end of their yard, and to cut off the fore-skinne after the manner of the Mahometans and Jewes....

Derived terms

Corruption of French milliard.

Noun

1. (finance) 10⁹, A Long and short scales billion; a thousand millions or milliard.I need to hedge a yard of yen.

Anagrams

• adry
• dray