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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

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

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 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
  • As foundation models continue to improve, however, simply wrapping an interface around a large language model will become increasingly difficult to differentiate.
    — Ganesh Shankar, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Looking down from the steep glass enclosure wrapping the ethereal oculus is like peering down from a cliff.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of wrapping
Verb
  • Attendees may make a habit of circling conflicts and calculating whether ten minutes of one set is worth the hike before another begins.
    — Svetlana Khachiyan, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2026
  • The trio lived and worked in space for 245 days, circling Earth 3,920 times and traveling a total of nearly 104 million miles (167 million kilometers), according to NASA.
    — Mike Wall, Space.com, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of circling
Verb
  • The market is attempting to judge how long high capital expenditures and elevated valuations surrounding AI can be sustained.
    — , CNBC, 28 Aug. 2026
  • So surrounding Antetokounmpo with shooting was the smart strategy, because the data suggests offenses play at well above-average levels when the two-time MVP is paired with elite shooting.
    — Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of surrounding
Verb
  • Now, agents are capable of performing sophisticated workflows and traversing multiple applications by leveraging a critical artifact of modern computing, the application programming interface (API).
    — George C. Lee II, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2026
  • The pair left their vehicle to find assistance, traversing salt flats toward Badwater Road, a two-lane highway encircled by mountains.
    — Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of traversing
Verb
  • There are no bleachers, so spectators set up lawn chairs encircling the field.
    — Kelenna Onukwugha, Christian Science Monitor, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Its signature Hémisphère features fine grooves encircling each plate like rings around a planet.
    — Angela Tafoya, Architectural Digest, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of encircling
Verb
  • In 2001, Canadarm2 was attached to the International Space Station and used to help build the orbiting laboratory.
    — Joanna Goodrich, IEEE Spectrum, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Canada's GHGSat has a program in which employees name the company's Earth-orbiting satellites after family members, which has generated names from real-life people like Eleonore and Penny.
    — Elizabeth Howell, Space.com, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of orbiting

Browse Nearby Words

girdles
girdling
girds
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Girdling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/girdling. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

A List of Most Commonly Confused Words

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

Stay Woke

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 4
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

The Longest Long Words List

Stay Woke
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
anagrams on a chalk board
Word Builder Quiz Vol. 2 Pick the letter that when added to a word will ma...
See All