shire

noun

1. one of the counties of Great Britain.
2. the Shires, the counties in the Midlands in which hunting is especially popular.

noun

1. one of an English breed of large, strong draft horses having a usually brown or bay coat with white markings.

noun

1. a river in SE Africa, flowing S from Lake Malawi to the Zambezi River. 370 miles (596 km) long.

noun

1. 1. one of the British counties
   2. (in combination)Yorkshire
2. (in Australia) a rural district having its own local council
3. See shire horse
4. the Midland counties of England, esp Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, famous for hunting, etc

verb

1. (tr) Ulster dialect to refresh or restlet me get my head shired

noun

1. a river in E central Africa, flowing from Lake Malawi through Malawi and Mozambique to the Zambezi. Length: 596 km (370 miles)

n.

Old English scir “administrative office, jurisdiction, stewardship, authority,” also in particular use “district, province, country,” from Proto-Germanic *skizo (cf. Old High German scira “care, official charge”). Ousted since 14c. by Anglo-French county. The gentrified sense is from The Shires (1796), used by people in other parts of England of those counties that end in -shire; sense transferred to “hunting country of the Midlands” (1860).