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girl

UK/ˈɡɜːl/ US/ˈɡɛəl/ very common informal slang uk us

noun

1.

a young woman

  • “a young lady of 18”
Synonyms
2.

a youthful female person

  • “the baby was a girl”
  • “the girls were just learning to ride a tricycle”
Synonyms
Antonyms
3.

a female human offspring

  • “her daughter cared for her in her old age”
Synonyms
Antonyms
4.

a girl or young woman with whom a man is romantically involved

  • “his girlfriend kicked him out”
Synonyms
5.

a friendly informal reference to a grown woman

  • “Mrs. Smith was just one of the girls”

Origin

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. Cognates Cognate with Yola gurl (“child, girl”), German Gör, Göre (“brat, cheeky young child”), Low German Gör (“child”).

Phrases

  • air girl
  • altar girl
  • as the next girl
  • Asian baby girl
  • atta girl
  • away-day girl
  • baby girl
  • bad girl

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.