SHIRE

shire, shire horse

(noun) British breed of large heavy draft horse

shire

(noun) a former administrative district of England; equivalent to a county

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

shire (plural shires)

Physical area administered by a sheriff.

Former administrative area of Britain; a county.

(UK, colloquial) The general area in which a person lives or comes from, used in the context of travel within the United Kingdom.

A rural or outer suburban local government area of Australia.

A shire horse.

Verb

shire (third-person singular simple present shires, present participle shiring, simple past and past participle shired)

To (re)constitute as one or more shires or counties.

Anagrams

• Hires, Hiser, Sheri, Shier, heirs, hi-res, hires, reish, shier

Etymology

Proper noun

Shire (plural Shires)

A surname.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Shire is the 17239^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 1643 individuals. Shire is most common among White (67.74%) and Black/African American (26.17%) individuals.

Anagrams

• Hires, Hiser, Sheri, Shier, heirs, hi-res, hires, reish, shier

Source: Wiktionary

Shire, n. Etym: [AS. scire, scir, a division, province, county. Cf. Sheriff.]

1. A portion of Great Britain originally under the supervision of an earl; a territorial division, usually identical with a county, but sometimes limited to a smaller district; as, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Richmondshire, Hallamshire. An indefinite number of these hundreds make up a county or shire. Blackstone.

2. A division of a State, embracing several contiguous townships; a county. [U. S.]

Note: Shire is commonly added to the specific designation of a county as a part of its name; as, Yorkshire instead of York shire, or the shire of York; Berkshire instead of Berks shire. Such expressions as the county of Yorkshire, which in a strict sense are tautological, are used in England. In the United States the composite word is sometimes the only name of a county; as, Berkshire county, as it is called in Massachusetts, instead of Berks county, as in Pensylvania. The Tyne, Tees, Humber, Wash, Yare, Stour, and Thames separate the counties of Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, etc. Encyc. Brit. Knight of the shire. See under Knight.

– Shire clerk, an officer of a county court; also, an under sheriff. [Eng.] -- Shire mote (Old. Eng. Law), the county court; sheriff's turn, or court. [Obs.] Cowell. Blackstone.

– Shire reeve (Old Eng. Law), the reeve, or bailiff, of a shire; a sheriff. Burrill.

– Shire town, the capital town of a county; a county town.

– Shire wick, a county; a shire. [Obs.] Holland.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition