Emily Dickinson Lexicon

YARD, n. [Sax. geard, gerd, gyrd, a rod, that is, a shoot.]

1. A measure of three feet or thirty-six inches. It is just seven-ninths of the Paris ell.
2. [Sax. gyrdan, to inclose; Dan. gierde, a hedge, an inclosure; gierder, to hedge in, Sw. gärda.] An inclosure; usually, a small inclosed place in front of or around a house or barn. The yard in front of a house is called a court, and sometimes a court-yard. In the United States, a small yard is fenced round a barn for confining cattle, and called barn-yard or cow-yard.
3. In ships, a long, slender piece of timber, nearly cylindrical, suspended upon the mast, by which a sail is extended. Yard of land, in old books, a certain quantity of land, but different in different counties. In some counties it was 15 acres, in others 20 or 24, and even 40. Dock-yard, a place where ships are laid up. Prison-yard, primarily, an inclosure about a prison, or attached to it. Hence liberty of the yard, is a liberty granted to persons imprisoned for debt, of walking in the yard, or within any other limits prescribed by law, on his giving bond not to go beyond those limits. – United States.