shire
noun
one of the counties of Great Britain.
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shire
1 American
[shahyuhr]
/ ʃaɪər /
noun
-
shires
plural
-
one of the counties of Great Britain.
-
the Shires, the counties in the Midlands in which hunting is especially popular.
Shire
2
American
[shahyuhr]
/ ʃaɪər /
noun
Shiré
3
American
[shee-ray]
/ ˈʃi reɪ /
noun
shire
1
British
/ ʃaɪə /
noun
-
-
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
Shire
2
British
/ ˈʃɪəreɪ /
noun
shire
3
British
/ ʃaɪə /
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
"She was used to a dopey shire and was taken aback by these foals zooming around her."
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
“As long as other countries are willing to buy it from us, we’re going to be mining coal,” said Godfrey Adamthwaite, a retired third-generation mineworker who serves on the Singleton shire council.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 11, 2021
One comment simply read: "Anything that ends with shire will do me, Lincolnshire or Yorkshire."
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2021
There were dappled Percherons from France and shire geldings of tremendous size built to bear the weight of men in armor.
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
No flights are currently landing at the airport and Ethiopian Airlines said it had suspended flights to Mekelle and the cities of Shire and Axum because of what it called the "current situation" in Tigray.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
The couple married on Sunday at the Shire Hall in the town before heading towards the River Deben where they boarded the dragon boat.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Discovery revealed in May 2024 that it was heading back to the Shire with two new films.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
For many locals, their initial fear was quietened by the knowledge that the missing man's ire was directed at authorities, Alpine Shire Deputy Mayor Sarah Nicholas told the BBC.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
Frodo thought of Bilbo and his long friendship with the dwarf, and of Balin’s visit to the Shire long ago.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
As they proceeded up the Shiré it was seen that the promises of assistance from the Portuguese Government were worse than fruitless.
From The Personal Life of David Livingstone by William Garden Blaikie
A third trip up the Shiré was made in August, and on the 16th of September Lake Nyassa was discovered.
From The Personal Life of David Livingstone by William Garden Blaikie
He had heard much about us; had been down the Shiré, and as far as Mosambique, but never had an Englishman in his town before.
From The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 by Horace Waller
This, certainly, was the case as observed on the Zambesi and Shiré, and taking the different times for the sun's passage north of the equator, it explained the inundations of the Nile.
From The Personal Life of David Livingstone by William Garden Blaikie
Known to me previously for years on the Zambesi and Shiré it was a pleasure to have them with me for four months.
From The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 by Horace Waller
The 1,200 constituents who showed up for his forum — residents of Hollywood, Burbank, Silver Lake — are terrified of what’s been wrought by the faraway shires of Oshkosh, Grand Rapids, Erie and Dayton.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 22, 2017
And thanks to the more than 100,000 jobs the oil industry generates in Aberdeen and its surroundings, unemployment in the city and neighboring shires is less than half the 7.8 percent national average.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2013
Railing at wind farms from his perch in his favorite pub in the Kent countryside, Farage tries to articulate the fading voice of the English shires.
From Newsweek ● Mar. 11, 2013
The bogus Twitter page depicts Mrs Bone standing in her kitchen in Northamptonshire, known by its appreciators as "the rose of the shires", in true Margaret Thatcher pose.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2011
The plotting was apparently localised in the south-western shires, as we infer from the fact that the gemot sat in an unusual place, Cirencester in the Severn country.
From Canute the Great The Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age by Laurence Marcellus Larson
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.
