sires

Noun

sire (plural sires)

1. A lord, master, or other person in authority, most commonly used vocatively: formerly in speaking to elders and superiors, later only when addressing a sovereign.
   • The Sultan (impatiently).—Confound this dadblasted collar-bolt! I wish it had— Izzet Aintit Wazzit Pasha (custodian of the imperial wardrobe).—Can I be of any assistance, Sire? The Sultan.—Well, you might get a can of oil and a monkey-wrench and help me off with this undershirt. It’s long past...1908 September 23, “In Turkey”, in A[rthur] H[amilton] Folwell, editor, Puck, volume LXIV, number 1647, New York, N.Y.: Keppler & Schwarzmann, →OCLC
2. A male animal that has fathered a particular offspring (especially used of domestic animals and in biological research).
3. (obsolete) A father; the head of a family; the husband.
   • He but a Duke, would haue his Sonne a King, / And raiſe his iſſue like a louing Sire.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
4. (obsolete) A creator; a maker; an author; an originator.
   • Most musical of mourners, weep again! / Lament anew, Urania!—He died, / Who was the sire of an immortal strain, […]1821, Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, […], Pisa, Italy: […] Didot; reprinted London: Noel Douglas […], 1927, →OCLC, stanza IV, page 8
5. The vampire who turned another person.
   • There is a toxin in a vampire’s fangs that will infect its victim when the sire drinks deeply and fully of their blood.2010, Michelle Rowen, Bitten & Smitten, page 24

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