Belt v.

Pa. pple. 6 belt. [f. BELT sb.¹]

  1.  trans. and refl. To gird with a belt; to engirdle; spec. to invest with a distinctive belt, e.g., of knighthood.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 15285. Wid a tuel he belted his sides. Ibid., 3365. Sco belted hir bettur on hir wede. Ibid., 6087. Yee be alle belted, wit staf in hand.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., IX. xix. 51. Ðe Lord Schire Davy de Lyndesay Wes Erle maid … and he beltit swa.

c. 1570.  Bp. St. Andrew’s, in Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 327. A cott of kelt, Weill beltit in ane lethrone belt.

1813.  Scott, Rokeby, III. xxx. Allen-a-Dale was ne’er belted a knight.

  fig.  1536.  Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. 238. Belt you thairfore, lusty gallandis, with manheid and wisdome.

1552.  Abp. Hamilton, Catech., 267. Belt our loynyeis with verite.

  b.  refl. To gird oneself with a weapon.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VII. viii. 444. Beltyd wyth his Swerd alsua.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, IV. v. 159. Belt he was with a swerd of metall brycht.

1820.  Scott, Abbot, iii. There ne’er was gentleman but who belted him with the brand.

  c.  trans. To fasten on with a belt, gird on (a weapon, shield, etc.).

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, II. x. (ix.) 9. A swerd, but help, about him beltis he.

a. 1560.  Rolland, Crt. Venus, I. 163. Ane sword was belt about his [loins].

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 60. Bootelesse morglay to his sydes hee belted.

1782.  Pennant, Journ. Chester (1811), 271–2 (R.). On an enormous shield, which is belted to his body, is a rude figure of a lion passant guardant, and crowned.

1822.  Scott, Nigel, xi. A trustier old Trojan never belted a broadsword by a loop of leather.

  2.  transf. To surround with a circle or zone of any kind; to engirdle; to mark with an encircling band.

1536.  Bellenden, Cron. Scot., I. 117. Thay wer belttit about on every side with enimes.

1814.  Wordsw., White Doe, IV. 205. They belt him round with hearts undaunted.

1832.  Ht. Martineau, Each & All, vi. 72. The trees belted the churchyard.

1837.  W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville (1849), 225. He [the beaver] makes incisions round them [trees], or, in technical phrase, belts them with his teeth.

  3.  To mark with bands or stripes of color, etc.

1783.  T. Warton, Hist. Kiddington, 67 (R.). [Ramparts] dug out of a bed of chalk, and belting the hills far and wide with white.

1868.  Lockyer, Elem. Astron., cccv. Moments in which the meteors belted the sky like the meridians on a terrestrial globe.

  4.  To thrash with a belt. Cf. to strap.

1649.  in Rogers, Soc. Life Scotl., II. 217. Comitted to Alexander Cuming to see him belted be his mother.

a. 1700.  in Somers, Tracts (1811), V. 460. I wad she were wele belted with a bridle.

1818.  Hogg, Brownie, II. 162 (Jam.). ‘I wish he had beltit your shoulders.’

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Belt, to beat with a colt or rope’s end.

  5.  (See quots.: app. To shear off a belt of wool.)

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 41. To belte shepe. Yf any shepe raye or be fyled with dounge about the tayle, take a payre of sheres, and clyppe it awaye, [etc.].

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. ix. 176. Belting of sheep, is the dressing of them from filth.

1842.  C. Johnson, Farmer’s Encycl., I. 196. To belt, in some districts signifies to shear the buttocks and tails of sheep.