Cheshire

[chesh-er, -eer]

noun

Formerly Chester. a county in NW England. 899 sq. mi. (2328 sq. km).

a town in central Connecticut.

Also called Cheshire cheese, Chester. a hard cheese, yellowish, orange, or white in color, made of cow's milk and similar to cheddar.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for cheshire

Contemporary Examples of cheshire

Cheshire County Jail in Keene, N.H., looks more like a small college campus or a tech start-up than a house of detention.
‘Progressive Jail’ Is a 21st-Century Hell, Inmates Complain
Sarah Shourd
September 29, 2014
Phone services at Cheshire are also outsourced to private companies.
‘Progressive Jail’ Is a 21st-Century Hell, Inmates Complain
Sarah Shourd
September 29, 2014
Cheshire is supposed to be a “short-term” facility, with 60 percent of its prisoners awaiting trial.
‘Progressive Jail’ Is a 21st-Century Hell, Inmates Complain
Sarah Shourd
September 29, 2014
But at Cheshire, prisoners rarely, if ever, leave their pod.
‘Progressive Jail’ Is a 21st-Century Hell, Inmates Complain
Sarah Shourd
September 29, 2014
Cheshire is less interested in the literal, chromosomal answer than the figurative one.
This Week’s Hot Reads: Dec. 2, 2013
Mythili Rao and Thomas Flynn, Mythili Rao, Thomas Flynn
December 2, 2013

Historical Examples of cheshire

Regimental exercises filled weekends in Cheshire or the West Riding.
With Manchesters in the East
Gerald B. Hurst
The grasshopper is banished to the garden and the Cheshire Cat smiles all over her face.
Lotus Buds
Amy Carmichael
We next reached Harecastle, in Cheshire, where we landed for lunch.
Through Canal-Land in a Canadian Canoe
Vincent Hughes
The greater part of the gentlemen of Cheshire fell on that day.
Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1
J. Endell Tyler
Well, man, why are you standing there, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Reels and Spindles
Evelyn Raymond

British Dictionary definitions for cheshire

Cheshire

noun

a former administrative county of NW England; administered since 2009 by the unitary authorities of Cheshire West and Chester, and Cheshire East: low-lying and undulating, bordering on the Pennines in the east; mainly agricultural: the geographic and ceremonial county includes Warrington and Halton, which became independent unitary authorities in 1998. Area 2077 sq km (802 sq miles)Abbreviation: Ches

Cheshire

noun

Group Captain (Geoffrey) Leonard . 1917–92, British philanthropist: awarded the Victoria Cross in World War II; founded the Leonard Cheshire Foundation Homes for the Disabled: married Sue, Baroness Ryder

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cheshire

Cheshire

1086, Cestre Scire, from Chester + scir "district" (see shire). Cheshire cat and its proverbial grin are attested from 1770, but the signification is obscure.

I made a pun the other day, and palmed it upon Holcroft, who grinned like a Cheshire cat. (Why do cats grin in Cheshire?--Because it was once a county palatine, and the cats cannot help laughing whenever they think of it, though I see no great joke in it.) I said that Holcroft, on being asked who were the best dramatic writers of the day, replied, "HOOK AND I." Mr Hook is author of several pieces, Tekeli, &c. You know what hooks and eyes are, don't you? They are what little boys do up their breeches with. [Charles Lamb, letter to Thomas Manning, Feb. 26, 1808]