gird » girdle

Chiefly in:   girdle one's loins

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “President Bush, he must have guessed, was girdling his loins to continue the Grand Game with Iraq, after goading it into the long war with Iran” (link)
  • Civil liberties groups in the US are girdling their loins fo[r] battle with processor giant Intel over an encrypted ’security code’ (link)
  • And the odd, male things grouped down yonder by the auger, the giant twist of fate, fist of uncertainty and fount of gestation, are scattered about and girdling their loins for a late summer finale giant in its summation. (link)

Reported by Michael Siemon on soc.motss, 19 January 2005. The [first] example above I found via Google.

[2005-08-23, CW: more examples added.]

| link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/03/15 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by Richard Bell , 2006/03/09 at 12:47 am

    Many years ago, in a university faculty meeting, I heard my dean (Humanities) say it was time to “girdle our lions.”

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.