lord
/lɔːd
/noun
1A man of noble rank or high office; a nobleman: lords and ladies were entertained here...
- Had Arthur considered the pain that he should cause his knights, lords, nobles, wife?
- The noble lord spends most of his time alone and prefers not to talk about the four-year sentence he received for perjury.
- The noble lord had gone to bed drunk, woken up an hour later, still drunk, and had convinced himself that it was breakfast time.
1.1 (Lord) (In the UK) a title given formally to a baron, and less formally to a marquess, earl, or viscount (prefixed to a family or territorial name): Lord Derby...
- Who, then, was this Lord Chesterfield, about whom all of this proverbial fuss has been made?
- Lord Derby served as British Minister of War from 1916-18 during World War One.
- Lord Somerset is one of the most important and influential statesmen to have lived in the nineteenth century.
1.2 (the Lords) (In the UK) the House of Lords, or its members collectively.The bill underwent its fourth day of scrutiny during the committee stage in the Lords on Monday....
- The Fireworks Bill was given its third reading in the Lords without debate.
- This is a manifesto commitment and we will use the parliament act if the Lords object.
1.3 (Lord) (In the UK) a courtesy title given to a younger son of a duke or marquess (prefixed to a Christian name): Lord John Russell...
- Born premature and always small in stature, Lord John Russell served twice as prime minister.
- Lord Edward bears a passing resemblance to Lord Peter but he is a year or two younger.
- The Duke's younger brother, Lord Edward Corinth, and journalist Verity Browne, set out to investigate.
1.4Used in compound titles of other people of authority: Lord High Executioner...
- The position of Lord High Steward of England, not to be confused with the Lord Steward, a court functionary, is the first of the Great Officers of State.
- "Please, Lord High Executioner, I beg you don't do this. The Queen has never once confided her infidelities to me. I know nothing of this."
- It concerns our leading judges, including - also very directly - the Lord Chief Justice, and how the judiciary responds to political and media pressure.
1.5 historical A feudal superior, especially the owner of a manor house.In Scotland the role of the feudal lord was superimposed upon the more ancient status of chief of a clan or kindred....
- Princes, clerics, and feudal lords often levied taxes, tithes, and rents as shares of certain crops.
- Renters were squeezed by high rents in the decades before the Revolution, and many peasants found themselves facing lords who collected seigneurial dues with more rigour than ever.
1.6A master or ruler: our lord the king...
- My master, the great Scholar Li K'ai-men heard these words from his lord and master, His Majesty, the Emperor Kao.
- Anna is the melancholic woman of sorrows, completely dedicated to mourning the memory of her dead lord and master, while at the same time memorializing his life.
- Everyone who drew benefit from the estate was hoping that their new lord and master would not be a foreign absentee landlord, who turned up two or three times a year.
Synonyms
master, lord and master, ruler, leader, chief, superior, monarch, sovereign, king, emperor, prince, governor, commander, captain, overlord, suzerain, baron, potentate, liege, liege lord
1.7 (Lord) A name for God or Christ: give thanks to the Lord...
- The one person is the Lord Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christ the Lord.
- They had had a revelation of who Jesus is: both Lord and Christ.
- I ask this in the mighty name of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
Synonyms
God, the Father, Jehovah, the Almighty, the Supreme Being, the Deity;
Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ, Christ the Lord, the Messiah, the Saviour, the Son of God, the Redeemer, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings
exclamation
(Lord) Used in exclamations expressing surprise or worry, or for emphasis: Lord, I’m cold!...
- Someone Save Me From These Turbulent Republicans! - Oh, Lord!
- I held a one-woman demonstration in favor of Gay Pride in Erie, PA over 30 years ago - Lord!
- She felt a faint pang of fear and unknowing. Oh, Lord!
verb
1 (lord it over) Act in a superior and domineering manner towards (someone): when we were at school, you used to lord it over us...
- We do not seek to be considered superior to heterosexuals and lord it over them.
- A while back, I wondered: ‘How long can the equilibrium of technically incompetent rulers lording it over technologically advanced societies be maintained?’
- When things are going well for them politically, they are unbearably arrogant, shoving it in everyone's faces, ungraciously lording it over all concerned.
Synonyms
order about/around, boss about/around, give orders to, domineer, dominate, dictate to, pull rank on, tyrannize, bully, browbeat, oppress, repress, ride roughshod over, have under one's thumb;
be overbearing, put on airs, swagger
informal throw one's weight about/around, act big
2 [with object] archaic Confer the title of Lord upon: Sir Cadwallader Pleadwell has been lately lorded...
- Patronage from the leader of your party would be the way to get lorded.
Phrases
live like a lord
Lord (God) of hosts
lord of the manor
Lord of Misrule
Lord Muck
the Lord's Day
the Lord's Prayer
the Lord's Supper
My Lord
Our Lord
Derivatives
lordless
- The result is a lordless, man-centered religion supported by an elaborate biblical system.
- His retainers, now ronin, lordless samurai, pretend to scatter, some of them appearing to live dissolute lives.
- While they are ronin they cannot be part of any ‘group’ just as those lordless samurais in the feudal age in Japan.
lord-like
- Cecilia had to hid a smile when she saw Kit straighten his shoulders and take a step forwards in his most lord-like manner.
- The crow leisurely passed to and fro along the alleys, now lost among the little hollows and hillocks, and now emerging into sight, sometimes at a less, sometimes at a greater distance, but always with a deportment of the most lord-like indifference to the world around him.
Origin
Old English hlāford, from hlāfweard 'bread-keeper', from a Germanic base (see loaf1, ward). Compare with lady.
The root meaning of lord was ‘keeper of bread’. Old English from hlafweard, it comes from early forms of loaf and ward. The corresponding female form is lady, in Old English hlafdige ‘kneader of bread’. The Devil has many names, among them Lord of the Flies, the literal meaning of the Hebrew form Beelzebub. In 1954 William Golding published Lord of the Flies in which a group of schoolboys marooned on an uninhabited island revert to savagery and ritualistic behaviour.