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  • shire
    shire
    noun
    one of the counties of Great Britain.
  • Shire
    Shire
    noun
    one of an English breed of large, strong draft horses having a usually brown or bay coat with white markings.
  • Shiré
    Shiré
    noun
    a river in SE Africa, flowing S from Lake Malawi to the Zambezi River. 370 miles (596 km) long.
Synonyms

shire

1 American  
[shahyuhr] / ʃaɪər /

noun

  1. one of the counties of Great Britain.

  2. the Shires, the counties in the Midlands in which hunting is especially popular.

Shire 2 American  
[shahyuhr] / ʃaɪər /

noun

  1. one of an English breed of large, strong draft horses having a usually brown or bay coat with white markings.

Shiré 3 American  
[shee-rey] / ˈʃi reɪ /

noun

  1. a river in SE Africa, flowing S from Lake Malawi to the Zambezi River. 370 miles (596 km) long.

shire 1 British  
/ ʃaɪə /

noun

    1. one of the British counties

    2. ( in combination )

      Yorkshire

  2. (in Australia) a rural district having its own local council

  3. See shire horse

  4. the Midland counties of England, esp Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, famous for hunting, etc

"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
Shire 2 British  
/ ˈʃɪəreɪ /

noun

  1. a river in E central Africa, flowing from Lake Malawi through Malawi and Mozambique to the Zambezi. Length: 596 km (370 miles)

"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
shire 3 British  
/ ʃaɪə /

verb

  1. dialect (tr) to refresh or rest

    let me get my head shired
"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

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of shire1

before 900; Middle English; Old English scīr office of administration, jurisdiction of such an office, county

Origin of Shire2

1875–80; apparently so called because it was bred in the shires, i.e., those counties of west and central England whose names end in -shire

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Sammy the shire horse had recently lost her own foal when the thoroughbreds, whose own mothers had died, were brought into her care.

From BBC • Jun. 15, 2023

More recently, his works have also provided a fertile shire for nationalists who see themselves in his heroic archetypes.

From New York Times • Sep. 21, 2022

A baseball cap was a take on a horse-riding helmet alongside a flared pant with a fringed hem cleverly resembling a shire horse’s leg.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 29, 2021

Garry Keeffe, the CEO of the local shire of Northampton, says its biggest benefit will be stable work in a place where the last Australian Bureau of Statistics census put the average age at 51.

From The Guardian • Aug. 26, 2020

From the well-known names of these towns I learn in what county I have lighted; a north-midland shire, dusk with moorland, ridged with mountain: this I see.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.