Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A biological father.
  • noun The male parent of an animal, especially a domesticated mammal.
  • noun The plant or gamete responsible for fertilizing an ovule that develops into a seed.
  • noun Archaic A male ancestor; a forefather.
  • noun Archaic A gentleman of rank.
  • noun Archaic Used as a form of address for a superior, especially a king.
  • transitive verb To be the biological father of (a child).
  • transitive verb To be the male individual or gamete producing (an animal's offspring or a plant's seed) through sexual reproduction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A master; a lord; hence, a personage of importance; an esquire; a gentleman.
  • noun Master; lord; my lord: a respectful and formal title of address, used formerly to men of superior rank, position, or age, especially to a prince. (See sir.) Sire is or has been in present or recent use only in addressing a king or other sovereign prince.
  • noun The master of a house; goodman; husband.
  • noun An old person; an elder.
  • noun A father; an ancestor; a progenitor: used also in composition: as, grandsire; great-grandsire.
  • noun The male parent of a beast: used especially of stallions, but also of bulls, dogs, and other domestic animals: generally with dam as the female parent.
  • noun A breed; a growth: as, a good sire of pigs, or of cabbages.
  • To beget; procreate: used now chiefly of beasts, and especially of stallions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To beget; to procreate; -- used of beasts, and especially of stallions.
  • noun obsolete A lord, master, or other person in authority. See sir.
  • noun A tittle of respect formerly used in speaking to elders and superiors, but now only in addressing a sovereign.
  • noun A father; the head of a family; the husband.
  • noun A creator; a maker; an author; an originator.
  • noun The male parent of a beast; -- applied especially to horses.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A lord, master, or other person in authority, most commonly used vocatively.
  • noun A male animal, especially a horse or dog. In particular, one which is already, or has already been, a father.
  • verb transitive Of a male: to procreate; to father, beget.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun male parent of an animal especially a domestic animal such as a horse
  • verb make children
  • noun a title of address formerly used for a man of rank and authority
  • noun the founder of a family

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *seior, from Latin senior, older, comparative of senex, old; see sen- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French sire, the nominative singular of seignor; from Latin senior, from senex

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