Etimology
From Middle English yerd, yard, ȝerd, ȝeard, from Old English ġeard (“yard, garden, fence, enclosure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gard, from Proto-Germanic *gardaz (“enclosure, yard”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰórdʰos, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to enclose”). See also Dutch gaard, obsolete German Gart, German Garten, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål gård, Norwegian Nynorsk gard, Lithuanian gardas (“pen, enclosure”), Russian го́род (górod, “town”), Serbo-Croatian and Slovene grad ("town"), Albanian gardh (“fence”), Romanian gard, Avestan 𐬔𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬵𐬀 (gərədha, “dev's cave”), Sanskrit गृह (gṛha)), Medieval Latin gardinus, jardinus. Doublet of garden.
noun
yard (plural yards)
A small, usually uncultivated area adjoining or (now especially) within the precincts of a house or other building.
(US, Canada, Australia) The property surrounding one's house, typically dominated by one's lawn.
An enclosed area designated for a specific purpose, e.g. on farms, railways etc.
A place where moose or deer herd together in winter for pasture, protection, etc.
(Jamaica, MLE) One’s house or home.
Examples
'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.
Synonym: garden
A little further on, to the right, was a large garage, where the charabancs stood, half in and half out of the yard.
Pilton Yard, the Lynton & Barnstaple headquarters, has been taken over by a fur trading firm, and would-be trespassers to the old engine-shed are turned back by the pungent odour of heaps of carcases.
Man’s devilish cunt, tell me nutting about friends, that’s deadCuz I run up in yards,No vest, tryna ching man’s chestAnd leave him dead
Related words
hyponyms
apple-yard
back yard, back-yard, backyard
barn-yard, barnyard
bone-yard, boneyard
breaker's yard
brickyard
castle yard
chapel yard
churchyard
classification yard
coalyard
court-yard, courtyard
deer-yard, deeryard
dirt yard
dockyard
door-yard, dooryard
dung-yard
farm-yard, farmyard
foreyard
front yard
goods yard
graveyard
green-yard, greenyard
grip-yard
hemp-yard
hop-yard
hump yard
inn-yard, innyard
junk-yard, junkyard
kailyard, kaleyard
kirkyard
knacker's yard
liberty of the yard
lumber-yard, lumberyard
marshaling yard, marshalling yard
mast-yard
navy yard, navy-yard
oliveyard
ox-yard, oxyard
palace yard
par-yard
poultry-yard
press-yard
Quakers Yard
railyard
rick-yard, rickyard
rope-yard
sale-yard, saleyard
salvage yard
schoolyard
scrapyard
shipyard
show-yard
stable-yard
stack-yard, stackyard
steelyard
stockyard
straw yard
switchyard
tan-yard, tanyard
tenter-yard
tilt-yard, tiltyard
timber-yard, timberyard
vinegar-yard
vineyard
Welsh yard
wood-yard, woodyard
wrecker's yard
wrecking yard
wreck yard
yard jockey
verb
yard (third-person singular simple present yards, present participle yarding, simple past and past participle yarded)
(transitive) To confine to a yard.
Examples
As they reached the door, Bose, having yarded the cows, was stealing around the corner of the pig-sty, and making for the woods.
The sheep were straggling in a manner that meant walking work to round them, and he supposed he would have to yard them tonight, if she didn't liven up.
Etimology
From Middle English ȝerde, yerd, ȝerd, from Old English ġierd (“branch; rod, staff; measuring stick; yardland”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaʀd, from Proto-Germanic *gazdaz. Cognate with Dutch gard (“twig”), German Gerte and probably related to Latin hasta (“spear”).
noun
yard (plural yards or (UK colloquial) yard)
A unit of length equal to 3 feet in the US customary and British imperial systems of measurement, equal to precisely 0.9144 m since 1959 (US) or 1963 (UK).
Units of similar composition or length in other systems.
(nautical) Any spar carried aloft.
(obsolete) A branch, twig, or shoot.
(obsolete) A staff, rod, or stick.
(obsolete, medicine) A penis.
(US, slang, uncommon) 100 dollars.
(obsolete) The yardland, an obsolete English unit of land roughly understood as 30 acres.
(obsolete) The rod, a surveying unit of (once) 15 or (now) 16+1⁄2 feet.
(obsolete) The rood, area bound by a square rod, 1⁄4 acre.
Examples
Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
there were some people found who tooke pleasure to unhood the end of their yard, and to cut off the fore-skinne after the manner of the Mahometans and Jewes […].
[T]he testicles are quite exposed, but they wrap a piece of cloth or leafe round the yard which they tye up to the belly to a cord or bandage which they wear round the waist just under the short ribbs and over the belly and so tight that it was a wonder to us how they could endure it.
You must note, that two Fardells of Land make a Nooke of Land, and two Nookes make halfe a Yard of Land.
Related words
synonyms
(arm length): See ell
($100): See hundred
(surveying measure): See rod
(large unit of area): See virgate
(small unit of area): See rood
hypernyms
(unit of area): See virgate
hyponyms
(unit of area): See virgate
verb
yard (third-person singular simple present yards, present participle yarding, simple past and past participle yarded)
(intransitive, humorous) To move a yard at a time, as opposed to inching along.
Examples
He inched his way up the corridor as if he would rather be yarding his way down it, which was true.
Etimology
Clipping of milliard.
noun
yard (plural yards)
(finance) 109, A short scale billion; a long scale thousand millions or milliard.
Examples
I need to hedge a yard of yen.