Yard

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A rod; a stick; a staff. [Obs.] P. Plowman. If men smote it with a yerde. Chaucer.

2. A branch; a twig. [Obs.] The bitter frosts with the sleet and rain Destroyed hath the green in every yerd. Chaucer.

3. A long piece of timber, as a rafter, etc. [Obs.]

4. A measure of length, equaling three feet, or thirty-six inches, being the standard of English and American measure.

5. The penis.

6. A long piece of timber, nearly cylindrical, tapering toward the ends, and designed to support and extend a square sail. A yard is usually hung by the center to the mast. See Illust. of Ship. Golden Yard, or Yard and Ell (Astron.), a popular name the three stars in the belt of Orion. -- Under yard [i. e., under the rod], under contract. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. An inclosure; usually, a small inclosed place in front of, or around, a house or barn; as, a courtyard; a cowyard; a barnyard. A yard . . . inclosed all about with sticks In which she had a cock, hight chanticleer. Chaucer.

2. An inclosure within which any work or business is carried on; as, a dockyard; a shipyard. Liberty of the yard, a liberty, granted to persons imprisoned for debt, of walking in the yard, or within any other limits prescribed by law, on their giving bond not to go beyond those limits. -- Prison yard, an inclosure about a prison, or attached to it. -- Yard grass (Bot.), a low-growing grass (Eleusine Indica) having digitate spikes. It is common in dooryards, and like places, especially in the Southern United States. Called also crab grass. -- Yard of land. See Yardland.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To confine (cattle) to the yard; to shut up, or keep, in a yard; as, to yard cows.