esquire
/ɪˈskwaɪə/US/ˈɛskwaɪɚ/
esquire noun: a lawyer.
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Noun (1)
esquire (plural esquires)
- A lawyer.
- A male member of the gentry ranking below a knight.
- I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of the county, and one of the king's justices of the peace.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
- Esquires and gentlemen are confounded together by Sir Edward Coke, who observes that every esquire is a gentleman, and a gentleman is defined to be one qui arma gerit, who bears coat-armour, the grant of which was thought to add gentility to a man's family. It is indeed a matter somewhat unsettled...1875 Herbert Broom and Edward Hadley, notes by William Wait, Commentaries on the laws of England, I-317
- An honorific sometimes placed after a man's name.
- A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public.
- A squire; a youth who in the hopes of becoming a knight attended upon a knight
- A shield-bearer, but also applied to other attendants.
- The office of the esquire consisted of several departments; the esquire for the body, the esquire of the chamber, the esquire of the stable, and the carving esquire; the latter stood in the hall at dinner, carved the different dishes, and distributed them to the guests.1801, Joseph Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England
Verb
esquire (third-person singular simple present esquires, present participle esquiring, simple past and past participle esquired)
Noun (2)
esquire (plural esquires)
- The lower of the halves into which a square is divided diagonally, a single gyron, but potentially larger (extending across the shield) or smaller (for example, on Mortimer's arms).
- Thre pallets between ij Esquires bast dexter and sinister of the second.1597, Gerard Legh, Armorie, page 154, quoted in the NED
- Mortimer, Barry of 6, or & az. an inescutcheon arg. on a chief of the first 2 pallets between as many base esquires of the second.1883, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, page 142
esquire meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
esquire in Hindi
- एसक्वायर
esquire in Tamil
- திருவாளர், பட்டப்பெயர்
esquire in Urdu
- جناب, صاحب
esquire in Malayalam
- ബഹുമാനവാചി, അനുചാരി, ബഹുമാനസൂചകമായി ചേർക്കുന്ന പദം
More languagesFewer languages
- esquire in Kannada
- ಎಸ್ಕ್ವೈರ್
- esquire in Odia
- ଏସ୍କ୍ୱାଯ଼ାର
- esquire in Nepali
- एस्क्वायर, एसक्वायर
Forms of esquire
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | esquires |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | esquires |
| present participle | esquiring |
| past participle | esquired |
| past | esquired |
Origin of esquire
From Middle English esquier, from Old French escuyer, escuier, properly, a shield-bearer (compare modern French écuyer (“shield-bearer, armor-bearer, squire of a knight, esquire, equerry, rider, horseman”)), from Late Latin scūtārius (“shieldmaker, shield-bearer”), from Latin scūtum (“shield”); probably akin to English hide (“to cover”). The term squire is the result of apheresis. Compare equerry, escutcheon.
Old French esquiere, esquierre, esquarre (“a square”) (whence modern French équerre), perhaps via a form like based esquire from bas d'esquire ("bottom of a square"), whence attested forms base (e)squire, e(s)quire bast.
Words formed from esquire
Words that rhyme with esquire
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- choir
- desire
- inspire
- tire
- acquire
- admire
- dire
- empire
- respire
- sire
- transpire
- trier
- dryer
- friar
- fryer
- gyre
- lyre
- mire
- misfire
- require
- underfire
- aspire
- bemire
- buyer
- conspire
- inquire
- overfire
- perspire
- quire
- tyre
- attire
- briar
- crier
- higher
- lier
- overtire
- Pryor
- pyre
- re-retire
- retrochoir
- rewire
- supplier
- suspire
- underwire
- unretire
- afire
- byre
- drier
Questions about esquire
- What does esquire mean?
- Esquire means a lawyer.
- What is esquire in Hindi?
- Esquire in Hindi is एसक्वायर. See Esquire meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is esquire?
- Esquire can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce esquire?
- Esquire is pronounced /ɪˈskwaɪə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of esquire?
- The plural of esquire is esquires.
Words near esquire in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: esquire (page history and authors); esquire (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); esquire (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); esquire (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); esquire (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); esquire (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); esquire (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); esquire (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-esquire.wav.
Cite this entry: “esquire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/esquire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.