yard

1 of 4

noun (1)

ˈyärd 

1

a

: a small usually walled and often paved area open to the sky and adjacent to a building : court

b

: the grounds of a building or group of buildings

2

: the grounds immediately surrounding a house that are usually covered with grass

3

a

: an enclosure for livestock (such as poultry)

b(1)

: an area with its buildings and facilities set aside for a particular business or activity

(2)

: an assembly or storage area (as for dry-docked boats)

c

: a system of tracks for storage and maintenance of cars and making up trains

4

: a locality in a forest where deer herd in winter

yard

2 of 4

adjective

1

: of, relating to, or employed in the yard surrounding a building

yard light

2

: of, relating to, or employed in a railroad yard

a yard engine

yard

3 of 4

verb

yarded; yarding; yards

transitive verb

1

: to drive into or confine in a restricted area : herd, pen

2

: to deliver to or store in a yard

intransitive verb

: to congregate in or as if in a yard

yard

4 of 4

noun (2)

1

: any of various units of measure: such as

a

: a unit of length equal in the U.S. to 0.9144 meter see Weights and Measures Table

b

: a unit of volume equal to a cubic yard

2

a

: a great length or quantity

remembered yards of facts and figures

b

slang : one hundred dollars

3

: a long spar tapered toward the ends to support and spread the head of a square sail, lateen, or lugsail

4

: a slender glass about three feet tall having a flared opening and a bulbous bottom

also : the amount it contains

a yard of ale

Phrases

the whole nine yards

: all of a related set of circumstances, conditions, or details

who could learn the most about making records, about electronics and engineering, the whole nine yards

—Stephen Stills

—sometimes used adverbially with go to indicate an all-out effort

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• close
• court
• courtyard
• enclosure
• inclosure
• patio
• quad
• quadrangle

Noun (2)

• abundance
• barrel
• basketful
• boatload
• bucket
• bunch
• bundle
• bushel
• carload
• chunk
• deal
• dozen
• fistful
• gobs
• good deal
• heap
• hundred
• lashings [chiefly British]
• lashins
• loads
• lot
• mass
• mess
• mountain
• much
• multiplicity
• myriad
• oodles
• pack
• passel
• peck
• pile
• plateful
• plenitude
• plentitude
• plenty
• pot
• potful
• profusion
• quantity
• raft
• reams
• scads
• sheaf
• shipload
• sight
• slew
• spate
• stack
• store
• ton
• truckload
• volume
• wad
• wealth

Examples of yard in a Sentence

Noun (1)

inmates are allowed an hour of exercise in the prison's inner yard

we're looking for a house with a big yard

Noun (2)

a composer who produced yards of gorgeous music over the course of a long career

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Purdy passed for 353 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers. —Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 10 Nov. 2024

Lamar Jackson is 10 of 14 for 71 yards and a score. —NBC News, 8 Nov. 2024

Verb

Everything from banana peels and used coffee grounds to yard waste and soiled paper products like pizza boxes counts as organic waste. —Amy Taxin, Fortune, 19 Feb. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English yerd, going back to Old English geard "fence, enclosure, dwelling, home, district, country," going back to Germanic *garđa- (whence also Old Saxon gard "garden, dwelling, world," Middle Dutch gaert "garden, yard," Old High German gart "enclosure, circle, enclosed piece of property," Old Norse garðr "enclosure, courtyard," Gothic gards (i-stem) "house, household, courtyard"; from an n-stem *garđan-: Old Frisian garda "family property, courtyard," Old Saxon gardo "garden," Old High German garto), perhaps (if from *ghortós) going back to Indo-European *ghortos "enclosure," whence also Old Irish gort "arable or pasture field," Welsh garth "field, enclosure, fold," Breton garz "hedge," Latin hortus "garden," Greek chórtos "farmyard, pasturage"

Note: The above is only one possible account of this somewhat problematic etymon. If not from a Verner's Law variant of a putative stem *ghor-to-, the Germanic word could go back to *ghordho-, which would correspond to Slavic *gordŭ (Old Church Slavic gradŭ "town, garden, yard," Russian górod "city," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian grâd) and Lithuanian gar͂das "pen, fold." The Slavic and Baltic words have, alternatively, been taken as loans from Germanic. This explanation would not, however, cover Albanian gardh "fence, wattled partition," or, more crucially, Sanskrit gṛháḥ "house," if it goes back to *ghr̥dhos, a zero-grade derivative. The Germanic etymon has traditionally been connected with a hypothetical verb base *ǵher- "grasp, enclose," seen in Sanskrit harati "(s/he) takes, fetches, bears," jahrur "were fetched," though the Albanian, Balto-Slavic and Sanskrit words do not show a palatovelar. A palatovelar is evidenced, however, in a group of semantically related words: Lithuanian žárdas "rack for drying grain, flax or pease, cattle hurdle," ža͂rdis "fenced pasture," Old Prussian sardis "fence," regional Russian zoród, zaród "stack of hay or grain sheaves, enclosure around a stack." Also associated with Germanic *garđa- is a strong verb *gerđan- hypothetically evidenced by Gothic *-gairdan (attested only as the past participle bigaurdans, translating Greek perizōsámenos "girding oneself") and a weak verb *gurdjan- with zero grade—see gird entry 1, girdle entry 1, girth entry 1.

Noun (2)

Middle English yerd, yerde "stick, pole, rod, spar supporting a sail, unit of measure," going back to Old English gierd "stick, rod," going back to Germanic *gazdjō (whence Old Frisian ierde "stick," Old Saxon gerdia, Old High German gerta), derivative of *gazda- "stick, rod" (whence Old High German gart "stick," Old Norse gaddr "goad, spike," Gothic gazds "sting"), going back to dialectal Indo-European *ghazdh- "stick, something pointed" (whence Latin hasta "spear," Middle Irish gat "withe, osier," probably also gas "shoot, twig"), probably a loanword from an unknown source

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Adjective

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1758, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Noun (2)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing yard

• cloth yard
• front yard
• main yard
• navy yard
• timber yard
• yard goods
• yard grass
• yard line
• yard-long bean
• yard sale
• yard work

Kids Definition

yard

1 of 2 noun

ˈyärd 

1

a

: a small often enclosed area open to the sky and next to a building

b

: the grounds of a building (as the grassy area around a house)

2

a

: an enclosure for livestock

b

: an area with its buildings and equipment set aside for a particular activity

a navy yard

c

: a system of railroad tracks for keeping and repairing cars

yard

2 of 2 noun

1

: any of various units of measure

especially : a unit of length equal in the U.S. to 0.9144 meter see measure

2

: a long pole tapered toward the ends that supports and spreads the top of a sail

Etymology

Noun

Old English geard "an enclosed space, yard"

Noun

Old English gierd "twig, measure"