• (British) IPA: /ɪˈskwaɪə/
• (GA) IPA: /ˈɛskwaɪɚ/

esquire (plural esquires)

1. A lawyer.
2. A male member of the gentry ranking below a knight.
   • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of the county, and one of the king's justices of the peace.

   • 1875 Herbert Broom and Edward Hadley, notes by William Wait, Commentaries on the laws of England, I-317:

     Esquires and gentlemen are confounded together by Sir Edward Coke, who observes that every esquire is a gentleman, and a gentleman is defined to be one qui arma gerit, who bears coat-armour, the grant of which was thought to add gentility to a man's family. It is indeed a matter somewhat unsettled what constitutes the distinction, or who is a real esquire; for no estate, however large, per se confers this rank upon its owner.

3. An honorific sometimes placed after a man's name.
4. A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public.
5. (archaic) A squire; a youth who in the hopes of becoming a knight attended upon a knight
6. (obsolete) A shield-bearer, but also applied to other attendants.
   • 1801, Joseph Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England

     The office of the esquire consisted of several departments; the esquire for the body, the esquire of the chamber, the esquire of the stable, and the carving esquire; the latter stood in the hall at dinner, carved the different dishes, and distributed them to the guests.

• French: écuyer
• Russian: эсква́йр
• Spanish: escudero

• French: écuyer
• German: Schildknappe, Knappe
• Russian: оружено́сец
• Spanish: escudero

• Russian: кавале́р
• Spanish: acompañante

esquire (esquires, present participle esquiring; past and past participle esquired)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To attend, wait on, escort.

esquire (plural esquires)

1. (heraldry) A bearing somewhat resembling a gyron, but extending across the field so that the point touches the opposite edge of the escutcheon.