girl

A young female human, or sometimes a young female animal.

(sometimes offensive, see usage note) A woman, especially a young and often attractive woman.

A female servant; a maid. (see usage notes)

(card games, slang, uncommon) A queen (the playing card).

'Now, girls,' continued Healey, 'you're very high-spirited and that's as it should be but I won't have you getting out of hand.[…]' […] Setting a spatted foot on the bench that ran down the middle of the changing-room with elegant distain, Adrian began to flip through a pile of Y-fronts and rugger shorts with his cane.

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, pages 5–6:

(colloquial) A term of endearment. (see usage notes)

There isn't any guy going to steal my girl!

1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Girl from Hollywood:

I took my girl to the cinema to watch your American movies.

1996, Elizabeth Wong, Kimchee and Chitlins: A Serious Comedy about Getting Along, page 74:

Your girl turned up on our doorstep.

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A roebuck two years old.

She had taught me to snort girl, and almost always when I came to her pad, there would be thin sparkling rows of crystal cocaine on the glass top of the cocktail table.

1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Cash Money Content, published 2011, →ISBN, page 43:

Elijah nodded congenially to the early evening regulars in the Afro Lounge, headed straight for the telephone hung midway between the mens and womens, his nose smarting from a couple thick lines of recently snorted girl.

1977, Odie Hawkins, Chicago Hustle, Holloway House, published 1987, →ISBN, page 175:

After about an hour or two of half-ass sex and snorting girl, Honey was zoned out. […] She flexed her still numb fingers, trying to find a warmth that didn't seem to come. Cocaine always made her numb.

2005, K'wan, Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 185:

Catch me playing with the plate, yeah I love the sauce
White girl in my nose, I need to clean it off

2016 July 22, “Bussin” (track 3), in Fenix Flexin (lyrics), Shoreline Mafia (music), Party Pack:

(US, slang, uncountable) Cocaine, especially in powder form.

Are you getting a boy cat or a girl cat?

A female non-human animal, especially, in affectionate address, a female pet, especially a dog.

Are there “boy” trees and “girl” trees? Yes. A number of species, among them the yew, holly and date-bearing palm, have their male and female flowers on different trees. The male holly, for instance, must be planted fairly close to the female ...

Of the 100 percent total, 25 will have two girl genes, 50 will have one boy and one girl gene, and 25 will have two boy genes.

1970 [earlier 1963], Helen V. Wilson, Helen Van Pelt, Helen Van Pelt's African Violets, Dutton Adult

When there are two "girl" genes the plant is a girl dwarf.

1972, GSN Gesneriad Saintpaulia News: African Violets, Gloxinias, Other Gesneriads and Exotic Plants:

(somewhat childish) A female (tree, gene, etc).

Daly came, delved into the old girl's inner works, and had her working in jig time.

1917 June 29, Les Enfant, “The Trials of Commuter Jones—a Would-Be Pumber”, in Metal Worker, Pumber, and Steam Fitter, volume 87, number 26, page 874:

“Quiet, everyone!” said Dad as he tried desperately to start the car. GRRR… GRRR… GRRR… Instead of shuddering into life, Queenie let out a low, grinding noise. “Oh no,” said Dad.
“What?” asked the boy.
“The engine must have flooded when she went upside down. The poor old girl won’t start again now for hours. We’re going to have to walk.”

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

The tired old girl was listing heavily in the heavy seas.

2013, Rose George, Deep Sea and Foreign Going:

I ran to my car and jumped in. "Come on, girl, start for me, baby!"

2024, William Halford, POR! Prince of Borland, page 58:

(informal) A machine or vehicle, especially one that the speaker uses often and is fond of.

en-noun

girl (countable and uncountable, plural girls)

desctree

Jamaican Creole: gyal, gal
→ English: gal; gyal
→ Icelandic: gella
→ Japanese: ギャル (gyaru)
→ English: gyaru

Tok Pisin: gel

→⇒ Finnish: kiltsi

→ French: girl; gow

→ German: Girl

→ Hungarian: görl

→ Japanese: ガール (gāru)

Etymological Dictionary of the German Language

de:Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person (boy or girl)”), perhaps from Old English *gyrele, from Proto-West Germanic *gurilā, from a zero-grade diminutive of *gaurā (“young child”) + *-ilā. Ultimately of unknown origin. Doublet of gal/gyal and gyaru.


girl

Quite different is the way in which the tomboy girled the rebel narrative. In recent years, queer theorists have taken a deep interest in the tomboy as a prefigure for the butch dyke.

2005, Leerom Medovoi, Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity, page 293:

One can argue that the genre “yuppified” the popular romance novel or perhaps “girled” the not especially gender-specific concept of the young urban professional.

2011, Stephanie Harzewski, Chick Lit and Postfeminism:

(transitive) To feminize or girlify; to gender as a girl or as for girls.

Making our way past a one-girl switchboard temporarily girled by two frantic operators, we found the victorious president, Elliott A. Bowles, barely visible behind a heap of telegrams [...]

Her first shock came when the ship on which she and her husband arrived was met by three boats “girled” by “great, splendid creatures, as tall as our millionaires' tallest daughters, and as strong-looking as any of our college-girl athletes,” ...

She and her Altrurian diplomat husband, arriving there by sea, are greeted by flower-laden boats, each not manned, but girled by six rowers, who pulled as true a stroke as I ever saw.

1986, Marcus Cunliffe, The Literature of the United States, New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books, →ISBN:

To her disappointment, the chatty Carlene DuBois wasn't behind the desk; instead it was manned—or girled—by a frothy little blonde who barely looked old enough to be out of high school.

2009, Linda Howard, Night Moves: Dream Man/After the Night, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 220:

(somewhat informal) To staff with or as a girl or girls.

en-verb

girl (third-person singular simple present girls, present participle girling, simple past and past participle girled)

girls (present singular third-person)
girling (participle present)
girled (participle past)
girled (past)