Word.ws English Dictionary

lairdship

lairdship noun: the state or condition of being a laird.

Noun

lairdship (countable and uncountable, plural lairdships)

  1. (Scotland) The state or condition of being a laird.
    • He would as soon have thought of wearing a white linen shirt or having the lairdship of a barony, as of getting ham to his breakfast.1715, S.R. Crockett, Bog-Myrtle and Peat
    • II. I whyles claw the elbow o' troublesome thought; But man is a sodger, and life is a faught: My mirth and guid humour are coin in my pouch, And my freedom's my lairdship nae monarch dare touch.1855, Robert Burns, Allan Cunningham, The Complete Works of Robert Burns= Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence.
  2. The area of land owned by a laird.
    • 'Laird,' said she (for so she always called him, though his lairdship was of the smallest), 'will ye tell them to bury me whaur I'll lie across at your feet?'1874, Edward Bannerman Ramsay, Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character

Forms of lairdship

plurallairdships

Origin of lairdship

Borrowed from Middle Scots lairdschip (modern Scots lairdship), from Early Scots lardschip, from Old English hlāfordsċipe; by surface analysis, laird + -ship and a doublet of lordship.

Questions about lairdship

What does lairdship mean?
Lairdship means the state or condition of being a laird.
What part of speech is lairdship?
Lairdship is a noun.
What is the plural of lairdship?
The plural of lairdship is lairdships.

Words near lairdship in the dictionary

  1. lairdess
  2. lairdesses
  3. lairding
  4. lairdocracy
  5. lairds
  6. lairdship
  7. lairdships
  8. laired
  9. laired it up
  10. laired up
  11. Lairenba

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lairdship (page history and authors). 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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