girl

Etymology

From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person of any gender”), perhaps from Old English *gyrele, *gyrle, from Proto-West Germanic *gurilā, from a zero-grade form of *gaurā (“young child”) + *-ilā, ultimately of unknown origin.

noun

1. A young female animal (especially a human).
2. (sometimes offensive, see usage note) A woman, especially a young and often attractive woman.
3. A female servant; a maid. (see usage notes)
4. (card games, slang, uncommon) A queen (the playing card).
5. (colloquial) A term of endearment. (see usage notes)
6. One's girlfriend.
   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
7. One's daughter.
   Your girl turned up on our doorstep.
8. (UK, dialect, obsolete) A roebuck two years old.
9. (US, slang, uncountable) Cocaine, especially in powder form.
   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, 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, 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, page 185
   Catch me playing with the plate, yeah I love the sauce White girl in my nose, I need to clean it off 2016-07-22, “Bussin” (track 3), in Fenix Flexin (lyrics), Shoreline Mafia (music), Party Pack
10. (somewhat childish) A female (tree, gene, etc).
    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 ... 1950, Pageant
    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

verb

1. (transitive) To feminize or girlify; to gender as a girl or as for girls.
   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
2. (somewhat informal) To staff with or as a girl or 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 … 1949, The New Yorker
   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,” ... 1961, The Georgia Review
   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
   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, page 220