See Also: shire(1)(dictionary)
shire(2)(dictionary)
shire(dictionary)
SHIRE, Eng(law)
Shire Pharmaceuticals(finance)
Shire River(encyclopedia)
shire horse(dictionary)
Shire Pharmaceuticals Group(finance)

shire(2) (iou)



shire noun & verb.

A. noun.
Care, official charge; administrative office or position, as of a steward, bishop, governor, etc. Only in OE.
A province or district under the rule of a governor; the see of a bishop, the province of an archbishop; gen. a country, a region, a district. OE-E19.
a. spec. Orig. (Hist.), in Anglo-Saxon times, an administrative district consisting of a number of smaller districts (hundreds or wapentakes), ruled jointly by an alderman and a sheriff who presided over a shire-moot or judicial assembly; under Norman rule, an English administrative division, equivalent to a county. Now gen., a county in Great Britain, esp. in England, and formerly also in Ireland. Freq. as 2nd elem. in names of counties, as Berkshire, Derbyshire, etc. OE.
b. The inhabitants of a shire collectively. OE.
c. A shire-court. ME-E16.
d. An English city or town with the status or powers of a county. Cf. COUNTY noun1 3. LME-L15.
e. A rural administrative district, often with its own elected council. Austral. M19.
the Shires:
a. The parts of England extending north-east from Hampshire and Devon; the midland counties of England; gen. those English counties with names ending or formerly ending in -shire. Also, the shire counties. L18.
b. The foxhunting district of England, chiefly comprising Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. M19.
A shire horse. L19.
Comb.: shire-bishop Hist. the bishop of a shire; shire county a non-metropolitan county of the UK, as instituted by the local government reorganization of 1974; shire-court = COUNTY noun1 1; shire-ground Hist. land divided into shires; a tract of land subject to the control of the authorities of a shire; shire-hall Hist. a building where the county quarter sessions, assizes, etc., were held (cf. county hall s.v. COUNTY noun1); shire horse a heavy powerful breed of draught horse with long hair on the fetlocks, originally bred chiefly in the midland counties of England; shire-house Hist. = shire hall above; shire-jury Hist. the members of a shire-court; shireman (a) Law (now Hist.) in Anglo-Saxon England, a sheriff; a bailiff; a steward; (b) (obsolete exc. dial.) a native or inhabitant of the Shires; shiremoot Hist. in Anglo-Saxon times, the judicial assembly of a shire; shire-oak Hist. an oak tree marking the boundary of a shire or a meeting place for a shire-court; shire-reeve Hist. a sheriff, an administrative officer of a shire; shire-stone Hist. a stone marking the boundary of a shire; shire-town (a) the chief town of a shire, a county town; (b) US = county seat s.v. COUNTY noun1.
b. verb trans. Divide (a country) into shires. E19.