girdlestead

English

Etymology

From girdle +‎ stead.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɜː(ɹ)dəlˌstɛd/

Noun

girdlestead (plural girdlesteads)

1. (obsolete) That part of the body where the girdle is worn, i.e. the waist.
   • 1605 August (first performance), Geo[rge] Chapman, Ben Ionson, Ioh[n] Marston, Eastward Hoe. […], London: […] [George Eld] for William Aspley, published September 1605, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, signature E, recto:

     [D]iuide your ſelfe in two halfes, iuſt by the girdleſtead; […]

   • [1611?], Homer, “The Fifth Booke of Homers Iliads”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC, page 74:

     [T]he Lance his target tooke, / Which could not interrupt the blow, that through it cleerly ſtrooke, / And in his bellies rimme was ſheath’d, beneath his girdle-ſtead; […]

   • c. 1604–1626, doubtfully attributed to Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Faithful Friends”, in Henry [William] Weber, editor, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, in Fourteen Volumes: […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] F[rancis] C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington;  […], published 1812, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, page 72:

     [T]hey have made me swell above the girdle-stead.

References

• “girdlestead”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.