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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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 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
  • And Bryan is wrapping his model in gray and pink chiffon because … there is no because.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2026
  • RoboCop extends Stevens’ relationship with Amazon MGM Studios after recently wrapping production on a series adaptation of John le Carré’s Legacy of Spies for the studio’s platform MGM+ and BBC.
    — Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 25 Aug. 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
  • Its signature Hémisphère features fine grooves encircling each plate like rings around a planet.
    — Angela Tafoya, Architectural Digest, 21 Aug. 2026
  • The zoning resolution for the Manhattanville extension explicitly forbids encircling any of the outdoor spaces with gates or fences.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of encircling
Verb
  • The lunar eclipse also may be visible to Hathaway and the nine other people living off the planet — seven astronauts at the International Space Station and three aboard China’s orbiting outpost.
    — Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026
  • The lunar eclipse may also be visible to Hathaway and the nine other people living off the planet — seven astronauts at the International Space Station and three aboard China’s orbiting outpost.
    — Marcia Dunn, The Orlando Sentinel, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of orbiting

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Cite this Entry

“Girdling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/girdling. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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