Cheshire
[chesh-er, -eer]
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for cheshire
Contemporary Examples
Cheshire County Jail in Keene, N.H., looks more like a small college campus or a tech start-up than a house of detention.
Phone services at Cheshire are also outsourced to private companies.
Cheshire is supposed to be a “short-term” facility, with 60 percent of its prisoners awaiting trial.
But at Cheshire, prisoners rarely, if ever, leave their pod.
Cheshire is less interested in the literal, chromosomal answer than the figurative one.
This Week’s Hot Reads: Dec. 2, 2013Mythili Rao and Thomas Flynn, Mythili Rao, Thomas Flynn
December 2, 2013
Historical Examples
Regimental exercises filled weekends in Cheshire or the West Riding.
With Manchesters in the EastGerald B. Hurst
The grasshopper is banished to the garden and the Cheshire Cat smiles all over her face.
Lotus BudsAmy Carmichael
We next reached Harecastle, in Cheshire, where we landed for lunch.
Through Canal-Land in a Canadian CanoeVincent Hughes
The greater part of the gentlemen of Cheshire fell on that day.
Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1J. Endell Tyler
Well, man, why are you standing there, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Reels and SpindlesEvelyn Raymond
Cheshire1
- 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
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Cheshire2
- 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
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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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]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper