SIRE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Sire

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/sˈaɪər/ Listen

noun

Sire n.

A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. (Obs.) "Pain and distress, sickness and ire, And melancholy that angry sire, Be of her palace senators."

A tittle of respect formerly used in speaking to elders and superiors, but now only in addressing a sovereign.

A father; the head of a family; the husband. "Jankin thet was our sire (i.e., husband)." "And raise his issue, like a loving sire."

A creator; a maker; an author; an originator. "(He) was the sire of an immortal strain."

The male parent of a beast; applied especially to horses; as, the horse had a good sire. Note: Sire is often used in composition; as in grandsire, grandfather; great-grandsire, great-grandfather.

verb

Sire v. t. (past & past part. sired; pres. part. siring) To beget; to procreate; used of beasts, and especially of stallions.

See images of 'Sire'

Etymology of 'Sire'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sire" Quotes from Famous Books

... forty-five years. We have put up with your adhering to your religion amidst fires and massacres: now I am so pressed by the Guise party as well as by my own people, that I am constrained to leave you in the hands of your enemies, and to- morrow you will be burnt unless you become converted." "Sire," answered the unconquerable old man, "I am ready to give my life for the glory of God. You have said many times that you have pity on me; and now I have pity on you, who have pronounced the words I AM CONSTRAINED! ...

— Self Help • Samuel Smiles

... fading years decay— Though manhood's prime hath passed away, Like old Silenus sire divine With blushes borrowed from the wine I'll wanton mid the dancing tram And live my follies ...

— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 - Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales • Ambrose Bierce

... upstart pride and insolent good fortune which is ashamed of its origin; nor are there many things more awkward than the situation of rich and poor relations. Happy, much happier, are those tribes and people who are confined to the same caste and way of life from sire to son, where prejudices are transmitted like instincts, and where the same unvarying standard of opinion and refinement blends countless generations in its improgressive, ...

— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt

... this love of brother and sister, which continued during life—confidential, earnest, tender, frank. In their best moods they were both lofty souls, and their mutuality was cemented in a contempt for the man who was their sire. This fine brotherly and sisterly affection comes close to us when we remember that it was our own Harriet Beecher Stowe, with sympathies worn to the quick through much brooding over the wrongs of ...

— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... are but breath; but where great deeds were done, A power abides, transferred from sire to son." ...

— Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O • Various

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