one of the counties of Great Britain.
the Shires, the counties in the Midlands in which hunting is especially popular.
one of the British counties
( in combination )
Yorkshire
(in Australia) a rural district having its own local council
See shire horse
the Midland counties of England, esp Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, famous for hunting, etc
before 900; Middle English; Old English scīr office of administration, jurisdiction of such an office, county
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"She was used to a dopey shire and was taken aback by these foals zooming around her."
From BBC • Jun. 15, 2023
A pair of orphaned racehorse foals have been adopted by a shire horse in Devon.
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 giant metal box sits in a field next to the shire council: one of several air-quality monitoring stations paid for by the mining and power-generating industries.
From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2021
It was probably the shire reeve’s horse, for above the slow clatter over the cobbles Robin could hear the grating of runners on a kind of sled the horse was dragging.
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
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.
