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

See Examples For:

second estate

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

This is called the second estate of man.

From A Rational Theology As Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Widtsoe, John A.

In passing the veil which separates between the first and second estates, man becomes unconscious, and, on awakening in his second estate, a veil is wisely thrown over all the past.

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

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)