second estate

American  

noun

1. the second of the three estates: the nobles in France; the lords temporal in England.

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second estate British  

noun

1. rare the nobility collectively

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Etymology

Origin of second estate

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

This second estate, an extension of land seized by King Henry III in 1265, encompasses 45,000 acres in England and Wales.

From Washington Post • Apr. 28, 2023

Durazo's second estate, in the Pacific resort town of Zihuatanejo, dubbed "the Parthenon," features decorative fountains, statues and marble-and-gold bathrooms.

From Time Magazine Archive

Having kept his second estate, and filled the measure of his responsibilities in the flesh, he passes the veil of death, and enters a third estate, or probationary sphere.

From Key to the Science of Theology by Pratt, Parley P.

I am just buying 150 acres more at Chocorua, to round off our second estate there.

From The Letters of William James, Vol. II by James, William

The voice of the warriors constituted a counterbalance, or species of second estate.

From An Address, Delivered Before the Was-ah Ho-de-no-son-ne or New Confederacy of the Iroquois Also, Genundewah, a Poem by Hosmer, William H. C. (William Howe Cuyler)