Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GIRD'LE, v.t.

1. To bind with a belt or sash; to gird. Shak.
2. To inclose; to environ; to shut in. Shak.
3. In America, to make a circular incision, like a belt, through the bark and alburnum of a tree to kill it. New England. Belknap. Dwight.