sire

From Middle English sire, from Old French sire, the nominative singular of seignor; from Latin senior, from senex. Doublet of seigneur, seignior, senhor, senior, señor, senyor, signore, and sir. Cognate with French monsieur.

• IPA^(key): /saɪə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

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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.
2. A male animal that has fathered a particular offspring (especially used of domestic animals and/or in biological research).
3. (obsolete) A father; the head of a family; the husband.
   • 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, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 154, column 1:

     He but a Duke, would haue his Sonne a King, / And raiſe his iſſue like a louing Sire.

   • 1807, [Germaine] de Staël Holstein, translated by D[ennis] Lawler, “[Book I. Oswald.] Chapter I.”, in Corinna; or, Italy. […], volume I, London: […] Corri, […]; and sold by Colburn, […], and Mackenzie, […], →OCLC, pages 5–6:

     Sometimes, also, he reproached himself, for abandoning those abodes where his father had dwelt. “Who knows,” said he to himself, “whether the shades of the departed are allowed to pursue, every where, the objects of their affection? Perhaps it is only permitted them to wander about the spot where their ashes repose! Perhaps in this moment does the spirit of my sire regret the absence of his son, while distance prevents my hearing his voice, exerted to recall me.[”]

   • 1848 February 12, “The Italian Question”, in The Cambridge Independent Press, Huntingdon, Bedford, & Peterborough Gazette, volume XLI, number 1,843, →OCLC, page [2], column 7:

     The concession of the King, who, be it also remembered, is a Bourbon, under such circumstances, is one of a suspicious character. Those who remember how faithlessly his father behaved in 1821, under precisely similar circumstances, to his subjects, cannot help entertaining the apprehensions that the son, like the sire, is playing fast and loose with his people, and that he will turn on them when the Austrians come to his relief.

4. (obsolete) A creator; a maker; an author; an originator.
   • 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:

     Most musical of mourners, weep again! / Lament anew, Urania!—He died, / Who was the sire of an immortal strain, […]

5. (fantasy) The vampire who turned another person.
   • 2010, Michelle Rowen, Bitten & Smitten‎^[1], page 24:

     There is a toxin in a vampire’s fangs that will infect its victim when the sire drinks deeply and fully of their blood.

   • 2011, Nancy Holder, The Damned‎^[2], page 7:

     Ever since Antonio’s escape from his sire in 1942, he had never been tempted to return to the vampire fold.

   • 2016, May Freighter, Russian Roulette‎^[3], page 291:

     “She is my sire. I cannot defy her as long as she is more powerful than me.”

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:sire.

• (male animal): dam

• sire-land

sire (third-person singular simple present sires, present participle siring, simple past and past participle sired)

1. (transitive, of a male) To father; to beget.
   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 6:

     In these travels, my father sired thirteen children in all, four boys and nine girls.

2. (fantasy) To turn another person into a vampire.

   Synonyms: turn, vampirize

   • 2008, Yasmine Galenorn, Darkling‎^[4], page 34:

     “Do you think they were wannabes, then? Groupies who found a willing vamp to sire them?”

   • 2009, Michelle Rowen, Stakes & Stilettos‎^[5], page 53:

     He wondered if she regretted siring him. Or marrying him.

   • 2014, J. C. Diem, Death Conquers‎^[6], page 33:

     I'd never sired another vampire before and I was at a loss of what to do with the rats.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:sire.

• EIRs, Eris, Iser, SIer, Seri, eirs, ires, reis, rise

• zire

From German zieren.

sire (imperative sir, infinitive at sire, present tense sirer, past tense sirede, perfect tense siret)

1. (archaic) adorn
2. (archaic, by extension, especially in the passive participle) endow with a favorable quality

• vansire

• “sire” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Inherited from Old French sire (nominative form), from Vulgar Latin *seior (used as a term of address), a contracted form of Latin senior (compare French seigneur, derived from the accusative form), perhaps influenced by maior. Doublet of seigneur, senior, and sieur.

• IPA^(key): /siʁ/
• Rhymes: -iʁ
• Homophones: cire, cirent, cires, sires

sire m (plural sires)

1. (obsolete) sire (term of respect) (Still used in at least partly French-speaking kingdoms such as Belgium or Canada as a form of address to the sovereign)
2. (obsolete) lord

• triste sire

• monsieur
• seigneur

• “sire”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• ries

Borrowed from Old French sire. See also sere. Doublet of signore.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsi.re/
• Rhymes: -ire
• Hyphenation: sì‧re

sire m (invariable)

1. king, monarch (only when addressing a sovereign)

   Synonyms: re, sovrano, monarca, maestà

• Eris, IRES, ersi, resi, rise, seri

• sir, sirre, syre, syr, seere, ser, sure, sore
• ẜ

From Old French sire, nominative singular of seignor, from Latin senior. Doublet of senyour.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːr(ə)/, /ˈsir(ə)/, /ˈsɛr(ə)/

sire (plural sires)

1. Used preceding the name or title of a knight, noble, or cleric.
2. A respectful term of address for a noble or gentleman.
3. A noble or lord; one of high station.
4. A husband as the head of a household.
5. A father as one's progenitor.

• English: sir; sire
• Scots: sir; sire

• “sī̆r(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiɾə/

sire m

1. nominative singular of sieur

sire

1. locative singular of siras (“head”)

sire

1. vocative singular of sirā (“vein”)

Borrowed from French sire.

sire m (uncountable)

1. sire

sire (Cyrillic spelling сире)

1. third-person plural present of siriti

sire

1. accusative plural of sir