girl
See also: Girl
English
Alternative forms
- girle, gyrle (obsolete)
- gal (colloquial)
- guhrl, gurl (nonstandard)
- grrrl, grrl (slang)
Etymology
A group of girls in Sri Lanka.
From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person of any gender”), of uncertain origin. Probably from Old English *gyrle, *gyrele, from Proto-Germanic *gurwilaz, a diminutive form of Proto-Germanic *gurwijaz (compare North Frisian gör (“girl”), Low German Gör, Göre (“child of any gender”), German Göre (“young child”), dialectal Norwegian gorre, dialectal Swedish garre, gurre (“small child”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“short”)[1] (compare Old Irish gair (“short”), Ancient Greek χρεώ (khreṓ, “need, necessity”), χρήσθαι (khrḗsthai, “to need”), Sanskrit ह्रस्व (hrasva, “short, small”)).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɡɜːɫ/, (obsolete) /ɡɛəl/, /ɡɪəl/[2]
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɡɝl/, /ɡɝ.əl/
Audio (US) (file) - (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ɡɵːl/, [ɡʏw]
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)l
- Homophone: Guirl
Noun
girl (countable and uncountable, plural girls)
- A female child, adolescent, or a young woman.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:girl
- Antonyms: see Thesaurus:boy
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698, page 46:
- No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or […] . And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.
- 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, OCLC 884653065; republished New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953, →ISBN, page 20-21:
- "Listen, Nick; let me tell you what I said when she was born... It'll show you how I've gotten to feel about—things... I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool— that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool...'" The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me.
- 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 3, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 27:
- The woman opposite him was a mere girl - twenty at a guess.
- 2006, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness, volume 3 of Scott Pilgrim
- Scott: Hey, it's our 8-month anniversary.
Envy: Really? I can't even believe you remember that stuff!
Scott: Whoa, wait a second... Am I the girl in this relationship?
Envy: You totally are!
- Scott: Hey, it's our 8-month anniversary.
- 2013 July 19, Mark Tran, “Denied an education by war”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 1:
- One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools […] as children, teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.
- A young female animal.
- (sometimes offensive) A woman, especially a young and often attractive woman.
- A female servant; a maid. (see usage notes)
- Synonyms: char, charlady, charwoman, maid, maiden, maidservant, womanservant
- (card games, slang, uncommon) A queen (the playing card).
- (colloquial) A term of endearment. (see usage notes)
- Synonyms: girlie, lass, lassie
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, London: Heinemann, OCLC 59891543, page 8-9:
- 'Now, girls,' continued Healey, 'you're very high-spirited and that's as it should be but I won't have you getting out of hand...' Setting a spatted foot on the bench that ran down the middle of the changing-room with elegant distain, Adrian began to flip through the pile of Y-fronts and rugger shorts with his cane.
- One's girlfriend.
- 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Girl from Hollywood
- There isn't any guy going to steal my girl!
- 1996, Elizabeth Wong, Kimchee and Chitlins: A Serious Comedy about Getting Along, page 74:
- I took my girl to the cinema to watch your American movies.
- 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Girl from Hollywood
- One's daughter.
- Your girl turned up on our doorstep.
- (UK, dialect, obsolete) A roebuck two years old.
- (US, slang, uncountable) Cocaine, especially in powder form.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cocaine
- 1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Cash Money Content, published 2011, →ISBN, page 43:
- She had taught me to snort girl, and almost always when I came to her pad, there would be thin sparkling rows of crystal cocaine on the glass top of the cocktail table.
- 1977, Odie Hawkins, Chicago Hustle, Holloway House, published 1987, →ISBN, page 175:
- Elijah nodded congenially to the early evening regulars in the Afro Lounge, headed straight for the telephone hung midway between the mens and womens, his nose smarting from a couple thick lines of recently snorted girl.
- 2005, K'wan, Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press (2005), →ISBN, page 185:
- After about an hour or two of half-ass sex and snorting girl, Honey was zoned out. […] She flexed her still numb fingers, trying to find a warmth that didn't seem to come. Cocaine always made her numb.
- 2016 July 22, Fenix Flexin (lyrics), Shoreline Mafia (music), “Bussin”, in Party Pack, track 3:
- Catch me playing with the plate, yeah I love the sauce
White girl in my nose, I need to clean it off
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:girl.
- (somewhat childish) A female (tree, gene, etc).
- 1950, Pageant:
- Are there “boy” trees and “girl” trees? Yes. A number of species, among them the yew, holly and date-bearing palm, have their male and female flowers on different trees. The male holly, for instance, must be planted fairly close to the female ...
- 1970 [earlier 1963], Helen V. Wilson, Helen Van Pelt, Helen Van Pelt's African Violets, Dutton Adult (→ISBN):
- Of the 100 percent total, 25 will have two girl genes, 50 will have one boy and one girl gene, and 25 will have two boy genes.
- 1972, GSN Gesneriad Saintpaulia News: African Violets, Gloxinias, Other Gesneriads and Exotic Plants:
- When there are two "girl" genes the plant is a girl dwarf.
- 1950, Pageant:
- (derogatory) A boy or man who is weak or sentimental.
- Synonyms: Jessie, sissy, wimp
- Don't be such a girl!
- 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, OCLC 558196156:
- Poor Traddles, who had passed the stage of lying with his head upon the desk, and was relieving himself as usual with a burst of skeletons, said he didn’t care. Mr. Mell was ill-used.
‘Who has ill-used him, you girl?’ said Steerforth.
Usage notes
- (any woman, regardless of her age): An adult calling a grown woman a "girl" may be considered either a compliment or an insult, depending on context and sensibilities. In some cases, the term is used as a euphemism for virgin, to distinguish a female who has never engaged in sexual intercourse (a "girl") from one who has done so (and is a woman). Even if the word "girl" in most cases is not meant to be derogatory, it may still be patronising sometimes, especially when used to address someone older than oneself.
- (term of endearment): When used as a term of endearment, it can be used for someone female or, in some contexts, for someone male, such as the use within the gay community.
Derived terms
- altar girl
- Asian baby girl
- as the next girl
- atta girl
- attagirl
- baby girl
- bad girl
- bagel girl
- ball girl
- bar girl
- beach-girl
- beach girl
- best girl
- b-girl
- B-girl
- big girl
- big girl pants
- big-girl pants
- big girl's blouse
- birthday girl
- Bond girl
- bottom girl
- boy-girl
- boy meets girl
- boy-meets-girl
- boy or girl paradox
- boys and girls
- bunny girl
- busgirl
- business girl
- call-girl
- call girl
- canary girl
- career girl
- carton girl
- catgirl
- champagne girl
- chill girl
- choir girl
- chorus girl
- chorus-girl
- cigarette girl
- city girl
- college girl
- comfort girl
- cover-girl
- cover girl
- cowgirl
- cry like a little girl
- Daddy's girl
- dancing-girl
- dancing girl
- daygirl
- diamonds are a girl's best friend
- dickgirl
- dirty girl
- e-girl
- Essex girl
- fake geek girl
- fancy girl
- final girl
- flower girl
- fluff girl
- friend girl
- gal
- genetic girl
- g-girl
- girl band
- girl-boy
- girlcock
- girlcott
- girl crazy
- girl crush
- girl-crush
- girldick
- girl Friday
- girl-friend
- girl friend, girlfriend
- girl-friendly
- girl goo
- girl group
- Girl Guides
- girlhood
- girl-hour
- girlie
- girlie girl
- girl in every port
- girlish
- girlism
- girl juice
- girllove
- girllover
- girl-next-door
- girl next door
- girl parts
- girl power
- girl push-up
- girl racer
- girl rented overnight
- girl scout
- Girl Scouts
- girl talk
- girl trouble
- girl wonder
- girly
- girly girl
- gock
- go-go girl
- golden girl
- goodtime girl
- good time girl
- good-time girl
- grid girl
- grrrl
- haul girl
- head girl
- hello girl
- hollaback girl
- homegirl
- idiot girl
- I'm a girl
- I'm a trans girl
- It girl
- Jersey girl
- juicy girl
- KTV girl
- land girl
- lift girl
- little girl
- lovergirl
- lt-girl
- magical girl
- manic pixie dream girl
- missing white girl syndrome
- mudflap girl
- nautch-girl
- nautch girl
- needle girl
- needle-girl
- newsgirl
- oh girl
- old girl
- page three girl
- paper girl
- party girl
- pick-me girl
- pizza girl
- pom-pom girl
- pompom girl
- poor little rich girl
- poster girl
- pot-girl
- reply girl
- ring girl
- riot girl
- riot grrrl
- salesgirl
- sarong party girl
- schoolgirl
- sea-girl
- second girl
- shoeshine girl
- shopgirl
- showgirl
- singing girl
- sky girl
- slave-girl
- stable girl
- street girl
- Sunday girl
- Surrey girl
- sweater girl
- telephone girl
- tg-girl
- TG-girl
- TG girl
- t-girl
- t-girl, tgirl
- that's a girl
- the girl next door
- three-way girl
- trans girl
- trans girl, transgirl
- TS girl
- valley-girl
- Valley girl
- valley girl
- van-girl
- vice girl
- video girl
- walk-on girl
- whipping girl
- white girl
- working girl
- ya girl
- young girl
- your girl
Pages starting with “girl”.
Descendants
- → Hungarian: görl
- → Japanese: ガール (gāru)
Translations
young female person
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woman
زن (fa) (zan)بانو (fa) (banu)
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female servant
کلفت (fa) (kolfat)کنیز (fa) (kanīz)
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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References
- Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, s.v. "girl" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002).
- Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9), volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 12.63, page 351.
Verb
girl (third-person singular simple present girls, present participle girling, simple past and past participle girled)
- (transitive) To feminize or girlify; to gender as a girl or as for girls.
- 2005, Leerom Medovoi, Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity, page 293:
- Quite different is the way in which the tomboy girled the rebel narrative. In recent years, queer theorists have taken a deep interest in the tomboy as a prefigure for the butch dyke.
- 2011, Stephanie Harzewski, Chick Lit and Postfeminism:
- One can argue that the genre “yuppified” the popular romance novel or perhaps “girled” the not especially gender-specific concept of the young urban professional.
-
- (somewhat informal) To staff with or as a girl or girls.
- 1949, The New Yorker:
- Making our way past a one-girl switchboard temporarily girled by two frantic operators, we found the victorious president, Elliott A. Bowles, barely visible behind a heap of telegrams [...]
- 1961, The Georgia Review:
- Her first shock came when the ship on which she and her husband arrived was met by three boats “girled” by “great, splendid creatures, as tall as our millionaires' tallest daughters, and as strong-looking as any of our college-girl athletes,” ...
- 1986, Marcus Cunliffe, The Literature of the United States, New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Penguin Books (→ISBN):
- She and her Altrurian diplomat husband, arriving there by sea, are greeted by flower-laden boats, each not manned, but girled by six rowers, who pulled as true a stroke as I ever saw.
- 2009, Linda Howard, Night Moves: Dream Man/After the Night, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 220:
- To her disappointment, the chatty Carlene DuBois wasn't behind the desk; instead it was manned—or girled—by a frothy little blonde who barely looked old enough to be out of high school.
- 1949, The New Yorker:
See also
- miss
Anagrams
- LIRG, gril
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡœʁl/
Audio (file)
Noun
girl f (plural girls)
- dancing girl
Further reading
- “girl”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Scots
Etymology
Metathesis of grill (“shudder (with horror, dread, etc), shiver (as on hearing a grating sound”), from Old Scots gril, from Middle English grillen (“shudder, quake, be afraid; enrage”), from Old English griellan, grillan (“offend, annoy; gnash one's teeth at”).
Verb
girl
- to shiver or shudder
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:girl.
- to tingle unpleasantly, when hearing a grating noise or biting into an acidic or unripe fruit
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:girl.