Adjacent Words

Yard definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

YARD, n.
1. A measure of three feet or thirty six inches. It is just seven niths of the Paris ell.
2. 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 countries. 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 the law, on his giving bond not to go beyond those limits.
YARD, v.t. To confine cattle to the yard; as, to yard cows. [A farmers word.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a unit of length equal to 3 feet; defined as 91.44 centimeters; originally taken to be the average length of a stride [syn: yard, pace]
2: the enclosed land around a house or other building; "it was a small house with almost no yard" [syn: yard, grounds, curtilage]
3: a tract of land enclosed for particular activities (sometimes paved and usually associated with buildings); "they opened a repair yard on the edge of town"
4: the cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100 [syn: thousand, one thousand, 1000, M, K, chiliad, G, grand, thou, yard]
5: a unit of volume (as for sand or gravel) [syn: cubic yard, yard]
6: a tract of land where logs are accumulated
7: an area having a network of railway tracks and sidings for storage and maintenance of cars and engines [syn: yard, railway yard, railyard]
8: a long horizontal spar tapered at the end and used to support and spread a square sail or lateen
9: an enclosure for animals (as chicken or livestock)

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English geard enclosure, yard; akin to Old High German gart enclosure, Latin hortus garden Date: before 12th century 1. a. a small usually walled and often paved area open to the sky and adjacent to a building ; court b. the grounds of a building or group of buildings 2. the grounds immediately surrounding a house that are usually covered with grass 3. a. an enclosure for livestock (as poultry) b. (1) an area with its buildings and facilities set aside for a particular business or activity (2) an assembly or storage area (as for dry-docked boats) c. a system of tracks for storage and maintenance of cars and making up trains 4. a locality in a forest where deer herd in winter II. adjective Date: 15th century 1. of, relating to, or employed in the yard surrounding a building <yard light> 2. of, relating to, or employed in a railroad yard <a yard engine> III. verb Date: 1758 transitive verb 1. to drive into or confine in a restricted area ; herd, pen 2. to deliver to or store in a yard intransitive verb to congregate in or as if in a yard IV. noun Etymology: Middle English yarde, from Old English gierd twig, measure, yard; akin to Old High German gart stick, Latin hasta spear Date: before 12th century 1. any of various units of measure: as a. a unit of length equal in the United States to 0.9144 meter — see weight table b. a unit of volume equal to a cubic yard 2. a. a great length or quantity <remembered yards of facts and figures> b. slang one hundred dollars 3. a long spar tapered toward the ends to support and spread the head of a square sail, lateen, or lugsail 4. a slender horn-shaped glass about three feet tall; also the amount it contains <a yard of ale>

Britannica Concise

Unit of length, equal to 36 inches or 3 ft (see foot) in the U.S. system, or to 0.9144 m (see meter) in the International System of Units. A cloth yard, used to measure cloth, was 37 in. long. (A cloth yard was also the standard length for arrows.) In casual speech, a yard (e.g., of concrete, gravel or topsoil) may refer to a cubic yard.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. 1 a unit of linear measure equal to 3 feet (0.9144 metre). 2 this length of material (a yard and a half of cloth). 3 a square or cubic yard esp. (in building) of sand etc. 4 a cylindrical spar tapering to each end slung across a mast for a sail to hang from. 5 (in pl.; foll. by of) colloq. a great length (yards of spare wallpaper). Phrases and idioms: by the yard at great length. yard-arm the outer extremity of a ship's yard. yard of ale Brit. 1 a deep slender beer glass, about a yard long and holding two to three pints. 2 the contents of this. Etymology: OE gerd f. WG 2. n. & v. --n. 1 a piece of enclosed ground esp. attached to a building or used for a particular purpose. 2 US the garden of a house. --v.tr. put (cattle) into a stockyard. Phrases and idioms: the Yard Brit. colloq. = SCOTLAND YARD. yard-man 1 a person working in a railway-yard or timber-yard. 2 US a gardener or a person who does various outdoor jobs. yard-master the manager of a railway-yard. Etymology: OE geard enclosure, region, f. Gmc: cf. GARDEN

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Yard Yard, n. [OE. yerd, AS. gierd, gyrd, a rod, stick, a measure, a yard; akin to OFries. ierde, OS. gerda, D. garde, G. gerte, OHG. gartia, gerta, gart, Icel. gaddr a goad, sting, Goth. gazds, and probably to L. hasta a spear. Cf. Gad, n., Gird, n., Gride, v. i., Hastate.] 1. A rod; a stick; a staff. [Obs.] --P. Plowman. If men smote it with a yerde. --Chaucer. 2. A branch; a twig. [Obs.] The bitter frosts with the sleet and rain Destroyed hath the green in every yerd. --Chaucer. 3. A long piece of timber, as a rafter, etc. [Obs.] 4. A measure of length, equaling three feet, or thirty-six inches, being the standard of English and American measure. 5. The penis. 6. (Naut.) A long piece of timber, nearly cylindrical, tapering toward the ends, and designed to support and extend a square sail. A yard is usually hung by the center to the mast. See Illust. of Ship. Golden Yard, or Yard and Ell (Astron.), a popular name of the three stars in the belt of Orion. Under yard [i. e., under the rod], under contract. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Yard Yard, v. t. To confine (cattle) to the yard; to shut up, or keep, in a yard; as, to yard cows.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Yard Yard, n. [OE. yard, yerd, AS. geard; akin to OFries. garda garden, OS. gardo garden, gard yard, D. gaard garden, G. garten, OHG. garto garden, gari inclosure, Icel. gar[eth]r yard, house, Sw. g[*a]rd, Dan. gaard, Goth. gards a house, garda sheepfold, L. hortus garden, Gr. cho`rtos an inclosure. Cf. Court, Garden, Garth, Horticulture, Orchard.] 1. An inclosure; usually, a small inclosed place in front of, or around, a house or barn; as, a courtyard; a cowyard; a barnyard. A yard . . . inclosed all about with sticks In which she had a cock, hight chanticleer. --Chaucer. 2. An inclosure within which any work or business is carried on; as, a dockyard; a shipyard. Liberty of the yard, a liberty, granted to persons imprisoned for debt, of walking in the yard, or within any other limits prescribed by law, on their giving bond not to go beyond those limits. Prison yard, an inclosure about a prison, or attached to it. Yard grass (Bot.), a low-growing grass (Eleusine Indica) having digitate spikes. It is common in dooryards, and like places, especially in the Southern United States. Called also crab grass. Yard of land. See Yardland.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Yard Yard, n. (Zo["o]l.) A place where moose or deer herd together in winter for pasture, protection, etc.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(yards) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. A yard is a unit of length equal to thirty-six inches or approximately 91.4 centimetres. The incident took place about 500 yards from where he was standing... ...a long narrow strip of linen two or three yards long. ...a yard of silk. N-COUNT: num N, oft N of n 2. A yard is a flat area of concrete or stone that is next to a building and often has a wall around it. I saw him standing in the yard. = courtyard N-COUNT 3. You can refer to a large open area where a particular type of work is done as a yard. ...a railway yard. ...a ship repair yard. N-COUNT: usu supp N 4. A yard is a piece of land next to someone's house, with grass and plants growing in it. (AM; in BRIT, use garden) He dug a hole in our yard on Edgerton Avenue to plant a maple tree when I was born. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Enclosure, compound. 2. Three feet, thirty-six inches.

Moby Thesaurus

C, C-note, G, G-note, M, arena, armory, arsenal, assembly line, assembly plant, atomic energy plant, beleaguer, beset, besiege, bindery, blockade, boatyard, boilery, bookbindery, bound, box in, brewery, brickyard, buck, cage, cannery, cartwheel, cent, century, chamber, chiliad, chiliagon, chiliahedron, chiliarch, chiliarchia, cincture, close, close in, compass, confine, contain, container, coop, coop in, coop up, copper, cordon, cordon off, corral, court, courtyard, creamery, curtilage, dairy, defense plant, delimited field, dime, distillery, dockyard, dollar, dollar bill, encircle, enclave, enclose, enclosure, encompass, enshrine, factory, factory belt, factory district, feeder plant, fence in, field, fifty cents, fin, fish, five cents, five hundred dollars, five-dollar bill, five-hundred-dollar bill, five-spot, fiver, flour mill, fold, four bits, frogskin, grand, ground, half G, half a C, half dollar, half grand, hedge in, hem in, house in, hundred-dollar bill, impound, imprison, incarcerate, include, industrial park, industrial zone, iron man, jail, kennel, kilo, kilocycle, kilogram, kilohertz, kiloliter, kilometer, lakh, leaguer, list, main plant, manufactory, manufacturing plant, manufacturing quarter, mew, mew up, mill, millennium, millepede, milligram, milliliter, mint, munitions plant, myriad, nickel, oil refinery, one hundred thousand, packing house, pale, paling, park, pen, pen in, penny, plant, pocket, pottery, power plant, production line, push-button plant, quad, quadrangle, quarantine, quarter, rail in, red cent, refinery, sawbuck, sawmill, shipyard, shrine, shut in, shut up, silver dollar, skin, smacker, square, stable, subassembly plant, sugar refinery, surround, tannery, ten cents, ten thousand, ten-spot, tenner, theater, thou, thousand, thousand dollars, thousand-dollar bill, toft, twenty-dollar bill, twenty-five cents, two bits, two-dollar bill, two-spot, wall in, winery, wrap, yard up, yards