Squire, subs. (old).—1. A gallant; a woman's man; a servant (q.v.): also love-squire, and squire of dames. Hence apple-squire (q.v.) and squire of the body = a stallion (q.v.). As verb. = (1) to serve (q.v.); (2) to pimp (q.v.); and (3) to gallant.
1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, 5, 884. Our prentis Jankin . . . squiereth me both up and doun, Yet hast thou caught a false suspection: I wol him nat, though thou were ded to-morwe.
1590. Spenser, Fairy Queen, II. i. 21, 8. And eke himselfe had craftily devised To be her Squire, and do her Service well aguised.
1599. Jonson, Out of Humour. 'Characters—Shift.' His chief exercises are taking the whiff, squiring a cockatrice, and making privy searches for imparters.
1611. Chapman, May-Day, ii. 4. Now for a far-fetched device to fetch over my love-squire.
1632. Massinger, Emperor of the East, i. 2. Marry, there I'm call'd The Squire of Dames, or Servant of the Sex.
1639. Mayne, City Match, 35. And spoile your squiring in the dark.
1665. R. Head, English Rogue, I. ix. 71 (1874). From what Dunghil didst thou pick up this shakerag, this squire of the body?
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, iv. 3. To squire women about for other folks is as ungrateful an employment as to tell money for other folks.
1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1770), 90. Turning To look for Dido and her Squire, All in a chamber finely matted, He very fairly spy'd 'em at it.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. Neverout. . . . I'll go to the Opera to-night, . . . for I promised to squire the Countess to her Box.
1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, II. vi. It was no light-minded squire of dames who sat alone in the smoking-room.
3. (American).—See quot.
1862. Browne, Artemus Ward, His Book, 'The Octoroon.' It is a middlin fine day, Squire. [Note.—Squire in New England phraseology, a magistrate, or justice; but throughout the States, a very general complimentary title, varied occasionally by major, colonel, general, &c.]
4. (various).—See quots. c. 1696 and 1785: also Broom, Gallipot, and Pad.
1688. Shadwell, SQUIRE OF ALSATIA [Title].
c. 1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Squire of Alsatia, a Man of Fortune, drawn in, cheated, and ruin'd by a pack of poor, lowsy, spunging, bold Fellows that liv'd (formerly) in White-Fryers. The Squire, a Sir Timothy Treat-all; also a Sap-pate. Squirish, foolish, also one that pretends to Pay all Reckonings, and is not strong enough in the Pocket. A fat Squire, a rich Fool.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Squire of Alsatia. A weak profligate spendthrift, the squire of the company; one who pays the whole reckoning, or treats the company, is called standing squire.
Squireen, subs. (Irish).—A term
of contempt: see quot. Also
(general) squirelet.
1812. Edgeworth, Absentee, vii. Squireens are persons who, with good long leases or valuable farms, possess incomes of from three to eight hundred a year, who keep a pack of hounds, take out a commission of the peace, sometimes before they can spell . . . and almost always before they knew anything of law or justice.
1839. Carlyle, Misc., III. 56. A Scottish squirelet, full of gulosity and gigmanity.
1857. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, viii. A small squireen cursed with six or seven hundreds a year of his own, never sent to school, college, or into the army, he had grown up in a narrow circle of squireens like himself.
1873. Fraser's Mag., May, 647. The family of Bodley belonged to that class of squirelets . . . of which Devonshire in the days of Elizabeth was very full.
Squiress, subs. (colloquial).—A
squire's wife.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, vii. The one milliner's shop was full of fat squiresses, buying muslin ammunition.
