squire
see also: Squire
Pronunciation Noun
Squire
Proper noun
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see also: Squire
Pronunciation Noun
squire (plural squires)
- A shield-bearer or armor-bearer who attended a knight.
- A title of dignity next in degree below knight, and above gentleman. See esquire.
- A male attendant on a great personage.
- A devoted attendant or follower of a lady; a beau.
- A title of office and courtesy. See under esquire.
- (UK, colloquial) Term of address to an equal.
- 1969, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Dead Parrot sketch
- Sorry squire, I've had a look 'round the back of the shop, and uh, we're right out of parrots.
- 1969, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Dead Parrot sketch
- French: écuyer
- German: Schildknappe, Knappe, Edelknecht
- Italian: scudiero
- Portuguese: escudeiro
- Russian: оружено́сец
- Spanish: escudero
- French: seigneur, châtelain
- German: Kavalier
- Italian: gentiluomo, nobiluomo di campagna, castellano
- Russian: сквайр
- French: valet, majordome
- German: Galan
- Italian: valletto, maggiordomo
- Russian: камерди́нер
- Italian: gentiluomo
- Russian: господи́н
squire (squires, present participle squiring; past and past participle squired)
- To attend as a squire.
- 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue,” lines 303-307,
- And yet of our apprentice Ianekyn,
- For his crisp heer, shyninge as gold so fyn,
- And for he squiereth me bothe up and doun,
- Yet hastow caught a fals suspecioun;
- I wol hym noght, thogh thou were deed to-morwe.
- 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue,” lines 303-307,
- To attend as a beau, or gallant, for aid and protection.
- 1753, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Chapter 48,
- On some occasions, he displayed all his fund of good humour, with a view to beguile her sorrow; he importuned her to give him the pleasure of squiring her to some place of innocent entertainment; and, finally, insisted upon her accepting a pecuniary reinforcement to her finances, which he knew to be in a most consumptive condition.
- 1759, Oliver Goldsmith, “On Dress,” in The Bee, 13 October, 1759,
- Perceiving, however, that I had on my best wig, she offered, if I would ’squire her there, to send home the footman.
- 1812, Henry Weber (ed.), The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Volume 3, p. 326, footnote 3,
- To man a lady was, in former times, a phrase similar to the vulgar one at present in use, to squire.
- 1821, Walter Scott, Kenilworth, Chapter 4,
- Yes, such a thing as thou wouldst make of me should wear a book at his girdle instead of a poniard, and might just be suspected of manhood enough to squire a proud dame-citizen to the lecture at Saint Antonlin’s, and quarrel in her cause with any flat-capped threadmaker that would take the wall of her.
- 1936, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, Part One, Chapter 1,
- And raising good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, squiring the ladies with elegance and carrying one’s liquor like a gentleman were the things that mattered.
- 1988, Edmund White, The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, 1994, Chapter Six,
- A butch entered squiring a blonde whore tottering along on spike heels under dairy whip hair, her chubby hand rising again and again to tuck a stray wisp back into the creamy dome.
- Synonyms: escort
- 1753, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Chapter 48,
squire (plural squires)
- (obsolete) A ruler; a carpenter's square; a measure.
- 1598, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
- But temperaunce, said he, with golden squire, / Betwixt them both can measure out a meane.
- 1598, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, V, 2, 474.
- do not you know my lady's foot by the squire.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗:
- as for a workman not to know his axe, saw, squire, or any other toole, […].
- 1628, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, IV, 4, 348.
- twelve foot and a half by the squire.
- 1598, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Squire
Proper noun
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003