girdling

verb

present participle of girdle
1
as in wrapping
to encircle or bind with or as if with a belt trees girdled the campus, essentially hiding it from view wire girdling the bundle of firewood

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in circling
to travel completely around an asteroid belt that girdles the inner planets of the solar system

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3
as in surrounding
to form a circle around the rings that famously girdle the planet Saturn

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of girdling The tree is less likely to survive if insects or sapsuckers drill holes all the way around the trunk, girdling the tree and eventually starving it. — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 22 Sep. 2026 Also, the rootball should be inspected for circling or girdling roots. — Larry Figart, Florida Times-Union, 14 Jan. 2026 Removing this layer restricts the tree from moving water up from the roots or nutrients back down, a process known as girdling. — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 3 Nov. 2025 The new levee begins at the city of San Mateo’s border and runs below the San Mateo Bridge before girdling the city’s borders. — John King, San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Nov. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for girdling
  1. wrapping
  2. circling
  3. surrounding
  4. traversing
  5. encircling
  6. orbiting
Verb
  • If your hair isn’t naturally wavy, use a curling iron to add waves, wrapping sections around the iron in opposite directions for a less polished look.
    — Lindy Segal, Glamour, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Grande is currently taking a break from her public-facing work after wrapping her Eternal Sunshine Tour in early September.
    — Anna Chan, Billboard, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of wrapping
Verb
  • And the idea of circling the behavior of a group of people in a room.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2026
  • In 2001, Michelle remembers hiding under her desk and hearing helicopters circling over her school.
    — Taylor Galgano, CNN Money, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of circling
Verb
  • Also excluded from the map are the University of Kansas Medical Center and the surrounding corner of Wyandotte County alongside existing STAR bond districts for other projects.
    — Chris Higgins, Kansas City Star, 21 Oct. 2026
  • The third-quarter earnings season is gaining momentum, with investors closely watching corporate outlooks amid rising costs and uncertainty surrounding artificial intelligence spending.
    — Deena Zaidi, CNBC, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of surrounding
Verb
  • Then getting that energy to major cities means traversing some of the most pristine, spectacular natural corridors this nation has left, and particularly in the Southwest, rubbing up against the sacred lands of local tribal communities.
    — Sara Herschander, Vox, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Oil drops as Hormuz traffic rebounds Oil prices fell as new data showed crude exports from the Middle East surpassed prewar levels, though any respite may be short-lived as attacks on tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz increased.
    — Mary Lawrence Ware, semafor.com, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of traversing
Verb
  • Captured by the Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, or SMILE, the footage reveals the full ring of auroral activity encircling Earth's north pole in ultraviolet light, stretching across both the night and day sides of our planet.
    — Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Dumas watched, charmed, his arms encircling his wife’s shoulders, and accepted an ice-cream sundae in a silver parfait cup.
    — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2026
Definition of encircling
Verb
  • Musk has said SpaceX’s future success hinges on its Starship rocket, slated to carry astronauts to the moon and launch hundreds of thousands of communications satellites and orbiting data centers to power its AI ambitions.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Humankind's utilization of space is at an inflection point, as companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Amazon plan to launch constellations of hundreds of thousands of telecommunication satellites and orbiting data centers in the coming years.
    — Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of orbiting

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girdles
girdling
girds
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Cite this Entry

“Girdling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/girdling. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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