Forms: 1 ʓeard, 4–5 ȝerd(e, 4–6 ȝard(e, yerde, 4–8 yerd, 4–9 yaird, (4 ȝherd, 5 ȝeard, ȝord, yorde, 6 ȝharde, 7 yearde, 8 Sc. yeard), 5–6 ȝaird, 6–7 yarde, 3– yard. [OE. ʓeard str. masc. fence, dwelling, house, region = OS. gard enclosure, field, dwelling, MDu., Du. gaard garden, OHG. gart circle, ring, ON. garðr GARTH, (Sw. gård yard, Da. gard yard, farm), Goth. gards house, with corresp. wk. forms OFris. garda garden, OS. gardo, OHG. garto (MHG. garte, G. garten) garden, Goth. garda enclosure, stall. (OE. ʓeard is the second element of middanʓeard MIDDENERD, ortʓeard ORCHARD, wínʓeard WINYARD.)
The ulterior relations of these words are uncertain. Close affinity of sense is exhibited by the words derived from the Teut. root gerd-: gard-: gurd-, represented by GIRD v.1 (OE. gyrdan, OHG. gurten, ON. gyrða) and GIRTH sb.1 (ON. gjǫrð, Goth. gairda), and those derived from an Indo-European root ghort-, viz., Gr. χόρτος farm-yard, feeding-place, food, fodder, L. hortus garden, co-hors enclosure, yard, pen for cattle and poultry, COHORT, COURT, OIr. gort cornfield; but there are phonological difficulties in the way of equating both groups of words (Osl. gradū enclosure, town, Russ. градъ, горобъ town, as in Petrograd, Norgorod, Lith. gàrdas hurdle, fold, are prob. borrowed from Teutonic.)
The general signification of the word is enclosure, the particular character of which is usually to be inferred from the context; the simple word is thus often felt to be short for a specific compound of it (see references in the various senses).]
1. A comparatively small uncultivated area attached to a house or other building or enclosed by it; esp. such an area surrounded by walls or buildings within the precincts of a house, castle, inn, etc. Cf. back-yard, castle yard, chapel yard, COURTYARD, inn-yard, palace yard, stable-yard.
In OE. used in sing. and pl. = dwelling, house, home, the ‘courts of heaven’; also, region, tract (cf. middanʓeard MIDDENERD).
Beowulf, 2459. Nis þær hearpan sweʓ, ʓomen in ʓeardum.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 740 (Gr.). Wit … forleton on heofonrice heahʓetimbro, godlice ʓeardas.
a. 1000. Guthlac, 763 (Gr.). Swa soðfæstra sawla motun in ecne ʓeard up ʓestiʓan rodera rice.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xviii. (Egipciane), 571. To þe tempil men cane draw; & of It til in þe ȝarde I wes cummyne, I ne spard.
c. 1400. St. Alexius (Laud 108), 302. Alex … Is dweld in his fader ȝerd As a pore man.
1524. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 10. A litile howse with a yerde.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 100. I kepe doggis … in my yarde.
1565. in Hay Fleming, Reform. Scotl. (1910), 613. Part of ane yard within the abbay place of Sanctandrois.
a. 1657. Sir J. Balfour, Ann. Scot., Hist. Wks. 1825, II. 71. He was brought vpone a scaffold in the parliament yaird.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 121, ¶ 1. As I was walking … in the great Yard that belongs to my Friend’s Country-House.
a. 1720. Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), I. II. 96. The steeple-house yard.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxv. I wandered from one quadrangle of old fashioned buildings to another, and from thence to the College-yards, or walking ground.
1838. Lytton, Alice, V. iv. Four horses, that had been only fourteen miles, had just re-entered the yard.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, v. An old cathedral yard. Ibid., viii. A long row of small houses fronting on the street, and opening at the back upon a common yard.
1908. [Miss Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 20. The small yard between the stables.
b. spec. † (a) The ‘ground’ of a playhouse, orig. an inn-yard; (b) Sc. pl. a school playground; = COURT sb.1 3 (esp. in proper names, as Carter’s Yard, Thompson’s Yard in Oxford).
1609. Dekker, Gull’s Horn-bk., vi. 29. Neither are you to be hunted from thence though the Scar-crowes in the yard, hoot at you.
1808. Scott, Autobiogr., in Lockhart (1839), I. 41. I made a brighter figure in the yards than in the class. Ibid. (1815), Guy M., ii. Half the youthful mob of ‘the yards’ used to assemble … to see Dominie Sampson … descend the stairs from the Greek class.
1852. in Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), II. 211/1. Every Street, Lane, Square, Yard, Court, Alley, Passage, and Place … are to be thus cleansed.
c. Contextually = CHURCHYARD, GRAVE-YARD.
[1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 145. Not farre thence is a yard vsed for common buriall, called the holy field, vulgarly Campo Santo.]
1791. Burns, There’ll never be peace, ii. And now I greet round their green beds in the yerd.
1836. [Hooton], Bilberry Thurland, I. xi. 217. The road he had taken brought him at length to the church, through the yard of which it led.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, I. xxii. The little … church, its yard shaded with trees.
d. An inclosure attached to a prison, in which the prisoners take exercise. Liberty of the yard (U.S.): see quot. 1828–32.
1777. Howard, Prisons Eng., iii. 74. Why were not the walls of the yards repaired in time, that prisoners might with safety be allowed the proper use of them?
1828–32. Webster, s.v. Yard, Liberty of the yard, is a liberty granted to persons imprisoned for debt, of walking in the yard, or within any other limits prescribed by law.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), III. 438/1. This person … took me into the yard and stripped me.
e. The Yard, short for ‘Scotland Yard,’ the chief London police office.
1888. Gunter, Mr. Potter, xviii. 221. They’re tired of paying your old master’s salary up at the Yard.
1904. Sweeney, At Scotland Yard, ii. W. E. Monro … was one of the greatest public servants who ever worked at the Yard.
2. An inclosure forming a pen for cattle or poultry, a storing place for hay, or the like, belonging to a farm-house or surrounded by farm-buildings, or one in which a barn or similar building stands. (Cf. barn-yard, FARM-YARD, poultry-yard.)
c. 1300. Havelok, 702. Þe hennes of þe yerd.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 27. A yeerd she hadde enclosed al aboute With stikkes and a drye dych with-oute In which she hadde a Cok. Ibid., 177. Oon of hem was logged in a stalle Fer in a yeerd with Oxen of the plough.
1481. Caxton, Reynard, v. (Arb.), 10. I [sc. chantecleer] had viij fayr sones and seuen fayr doughters whiche … wente in a yerde whiche was walled round a boute.
1551. N. Country Wills (Surtees, 1908), 218. To Jhon Collin,… one lode of heye in my yarde.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 58. All maner of strawe that is scattered in yard.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxv. 175. One of the Lyons leaped downe into a neighbours yard, where nothing regarding the crowing or noise of the Cocks, hee eat them up.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 766. His wanton Kids … Fight harmless Battels in his homely Yard.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, IV. viii. A vast herd of cows in a rich farmer’s yard.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xv. A thriving farm with sleepy cows lying about the yard.
3. A piece of inclosed ground of moderate size, often adjoining a house and covered with grass or planted with trees; a garden. Now dial., a kitchen- or cottage-garden (cf. DOOR-YARD, KAIL-YARD).
See also grass-yard, GREEN-YARD.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1027. Paradis … es a yard cald o delites Wit all maner o suet spices. Ibid., 12522. He sent him to þe yerd … For to gedir þam sum cale.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 30. And after Phillis Philliberd This tre was cleped in the yerd.
c. 1400. Sc. Trojan War (Horstm.), I. 255. Ȝardes for herbys ande for virgerys.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xxvii. 111 (Add. MS.). He had a faire yerde [Harl. MS. gardin], that he mekell loved.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 537/2. Ȝerd, or ȝorde…, ortus.
1477. in Exch. Rolls Scot., IX. 101, note. Oure landis of Auld Lindoris with the brewlandis cotagiis and yairdis therof.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. p. lvi. Aqua vite … maid … of sic naturall herbis as grew in thair awin yardis.
1589. R. Bruce, Serm., v. (1590), T 2 b. Quhat Christ suffered for thame in the zarde [sc. Gethsemane], and on the crosse.
1718. in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874), 33. Houses biggings yairds orchyairds.
1792. Burns, Auld Rob Morris, iii. My daddie has nought but a cot-house and yard.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., ix. Any of her apple-trees or cabbages which she had left rooted in the ‘yard’ at Woodend.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Yard, the garden belonging to a cottage or ordinary messuage.
1889. Mary E. Wilkins, Far Away Melody, etc. (1891), 11. Four … old apple-trees, which stood promiscuously about the yard back of the Cottage.
4. An inclosure set apart for the growing, rearing, breeding, or storing of something or the carrying on of some work or business. Cf. brickyard, DOCKYARD, dung-yard, hemp-yard, ORCHARD (OE. ortʓeard), SHIPYARD, tan-yard, VINEYARD, † winyard (OE. wínʓeard).
1378. [see hemp-yard, HEMP sb. 6 b].
1520. Perth Hammermen Bk. (1889), 15. Ressavit fra John Kynloch of this yeres excrestes of the yairds.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xvi. 7/2. Great leuers … the whiche they founde in a carpenters yarde.
1555. Act 2 & 3 Phil. & Mary, c. 16 § 7. Before the said Boate … bee lanched out of the Yarde or Grounde wherin the same Boate … shall fortune to bee made.
a. 1610. Healey, Theophrastus (1636), 23. He hath a little yard, gravelled fit for wrestling.
1696. Cal. St. Pap., Dom., 282. The porter, master-caulker and ‘teamer’ of Deptford Yard.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. vi. 200. A ship.carpenter in the yard at Portsmouth.
1803. Pering, in Naval Chron., XV. 61. The yard is paid quarterly.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, River. What can be more amusing than Searle’s yard on a fine Sunday morning? Ibid. (1837), Pickw., ii. ‘What’s Mr. Smithie?’ inquired Mr. Tracy Tupman. ‘Something in the yard [= the Dockyard],’ replied the stranger.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 191. Eggs from the Yards of Mr. Punchard.
1872. G. S. Baden-Powell, New Homes, 195. These [the ‘yards’] are usually situated near the head station.
1891. W. K. Brooks, Oyster, 131. Around each claire is built a levee or dirt wall, called a yard.… This yard retains the water filling the basin.
b. The piece of ground adjacent to a railway station or terminus, used for making up trains, storing rolling-stock, etc.; also an inclosure in which cabs, trams, etc., are kept when not in use.
1827. [see wagon-yard, WAGON sb. 12].
1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. A … young man,… emerging suddenly from the coach yard.
1894. Daily News, 18 May, 5/4. Yesterday his cabs were still in the yard.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 8 Jan., 7/3. The yard foreman knows the capacity of each of the engines he sends out from his yard.
5. U.S. and Canada. An area in which moose and deer congregate, esp. during the winter months.
1829. Haliburton, Nova-Scotia, II. ix. 392. In winter they [sc. moose] form herds, and when the snow is deep, they describe a circle, and press the snow with their feet, until it becomes hard, which is called by hunters a yard, or pen.
1864–5. Wood, Homes without H., 614. So confident is the Elk in the security of the ‘yard,’ that it can scarcely ever be induced to leave its snowy fortification.
1884. Science, 28 March, 394/1. Immense yards, containing hundreds of deer, existed along the various tributaries [of the Ottawa].
1903. P. Fountain, in Longman’s Mag., July, 248. Men did their own pleasure, and never failed to destroy a ‘yard’ to the last fawn.
6. attrib. and Comb. (a) in sense 1, as yard door, gate, wall; yard-dog, a watchdog kept in the yard of a house or dwelling; (b) in sense 2, as yard-bar, -dung, -liquor, -pond, -room; † (c) in sense 3, (Sc. and U.S.), as yard door, end, house, tack; † yard-dike, a garden wall; yard-grass, a low annual grass, Eleusine indica, common in ‘yards’ about houses in parts of U.S.A.; also Cynodon Dactylon; (d) in sense 4, 4 b, esp. relating to dockyards, ship-yards, cab yards, or railway yards, as yard clerk, craft, -keeper, -lighter, -master; yard-money, fees payable by hirers of cabs from cab-owners to stablemen, etc., on returning them to the yard.
(a) 1580. in Archaeologia, LXIV. 358. To mak and hang a yard dor at the nether end of the turrit at the bridg.
1795. Haighton, in Phil. Trans., LXXXV. 197. I kept this animal nineteen months, during the greatest part of which he performed the office of a yard dog.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., Introd. (init.). Trusty, the yard-dog.
1857. Kingsley, Two Yrs. Ago, iii. Lofty garden and yard walls of grey stone. Ibid. (1865), Herew., xix. Let me and my serving-man go free out of thy yard gate.
1905. A. C. Benson, Thread of Gold, ii. A big black yard-dog.
1908. [Miss Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 29. Near the yard doors.
(b) 1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 119. Some barnroome haue little, and yardroome as much.
1764. Museum Rusticum, II. I. 3. When I make use of yard dung, I take care it is very rotten.
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., Digest, 23. It is better management to prevent, than either to waste or cart-out a superfluity of Yard-liquor.
1827. Clare, Sheph. Cal., 20. While ducks and geese … Plunge in the yard-pond brimming o’er.
1869. Mrs. Whitney, Hitherto, xi. The lowing of cattle at their yard-bars.
(c) 1473. Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879), I. 189. He sal put bath husband tak and ȝard tak til al possibil polyci. Ibid. (1505), 260. Biggind of gud ȝerd hous, sufficiand chawmeris and stabulis to resaue and herbry … xij or xvj hors.
1532. Abst. Protocols Town Clerks Glasgow (1897), IV. 57. The rademyng and lowsing of twa riggis of land, lyand at his yard end.
1595. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 132/2. Up the saidis Alesteris eist yaird-dyk to the mairch of Galdwalmoir.
1691. Jedburgh Counc. Rec., 19 March (MS.). For his wrongous … awaytakeing of certaine stones out of the minister’s yeard dyke at his awn hand.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 79. Behind the yard-door of my own house,… there was a low fence.
1822. J. Woods, Two Yrs.’ Resid. Illinois, 199. Yard-grass comes on land that has been much trodden; it is something like cock’s-foot-grass, except the seed.
1848. Schomburgk, Hist. Barbados, 586. Cynodon dactylon. Devil’s Grass. Bahama, or Yard Grass.
1907. A. Lang, Hist. Scot., IV. xvi. 392. A minister’s yard dyke, or garden wall, was overthrown.
(d) a. 1647. Pette, in Archaeologia (1796), XII. 266. Those businesses, which were put out by the great to divers yard-keepers.
1737. J. Chamberlayne’s St. Gt. Brit. (ed. 33), II. 87. Yard-keeper and Fire-maker.
1804. Naval Chron., XII. 504. Six Gun-vessels and Yard-lighters.
1861. (16 April) in Orders of Council Naval Service (1904), II. 29. Pensions … granted to the Riggers employed in Your Majesty’s Dock-yards, and the Seamen belonging to the Yard Craft.
1883. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Suppl., Yard Clerk, one who has the overlooking of the yard of a brewery, builder, etc.
1884. Bath Jrnl., 26 July, 7/3. On returning to the yard at night he has to stump up ten shillings more, plus a mysterious fee of two shillings called ‘yard money.’
1889. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 9 April, 3/4. [A] yardmaster at Brattleboro’ had one leg cut off by a switching train.
1891. C. Roberts, Adrift Amer., 93. The brakesman was standing by to couple the cars that the yard engine was backing down on to the rest of the train.
1898. Engineering Mag., XVI. 67. The ordinary yard-handling of, say, an army corps.
