Adjacent Words

Lord definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

LORD, n.
1. A master; a person possessing supreme power and authority; a ruler; a governor.
Man over man he made not lord.
But now I was the lord of this fair mansion.
2. A tyrant; an oppressive ruler.
3. A husband.
I oft in bitterness of soul deplores my absent daughter, and my dearer lord.
My lord also being old. Genesis 18.
4. A baron; the proprietor of a manor; as the lord of the manor.
5. A nobleman; a title of honor in Great Britain given to those who are noble by birth or creation; a peer of the realm, including dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts and barons. Archbishops and bishops also, as members of the house of lords, are lords of parliament. Thus we say, lords temporal and spiritual. By courtesy also the title is given to the sons of dukes and marquises, and to the eldest sons of earls.
6. An honorary title bestowed on certain official characters; as lord advocate, lord chamberlain, lord chancellor, lord chief justice, etc.
7. In scripture, the Supreme Being; Jehovah. When Lord, in the Old Testament, is prints in capitals, it is the translation of JEHOVAH, and so might, with more propriety, be rendered. The word is applied to Christ, Psalms 110. Colossians 3. and to the Holy Spirit, 2 Th 3. As a title of respect, it is applied to kings, Genesis 40. 1 Samuel 19. to princes and nobles, Genesis 42. Daniel 4. to a husband, Genesis 18. to a prophet, 1 Kings 18. 2 Kings 2. and to a respectable person, Genesis 24. Christ is called the Lord of glory, 1 Corinthians 2. and Lord of lords, Revelation 19.
LORD, v.t. To invest with the dignity and privileges of a lord.
LORD, v.i. To domineer; to rule with arbitrary or despotic sway; sometimes followed by over, and sometimes by it, in the manner of a transitive verb.
The whiles she lordeth in licentious bliss.
I see them lording it in London streets.
They lorded over them whom now they serve.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: terms referring to the Judeo-Christian God [syn: Godhead, Lord, Creator, Maker, Divine, God Almighty, Almighty, Jehovah]
2: a person who has general authority over others [syn: overlord, master, lord]
3: a titled peer of the realm [syn: Lord, noble, nobleman] [ant: Lady, noblewoman, peeress] v
1: make a lord of someone

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English loverd, lord, from Old English hl?ford, from hl?f loaf + weard keeper — more at loaf, ward Date: before 12th century 1. one having power and authority over others: a. a ruler by hereditary right or preeminence to whom service and obedience are due b. one of whom a fee or estate is held in feudal tenure c. an owner of land or other real property d. obsolete the male head of a household e. husband f. one that has achieved mastery or that exercises leadership or great power in some area <a drug lord> 2. capitalized a. god 1 b. Jesus 3. a man of rank or high position: as a. a feudal tenant whose right or title comes directly from the king b. a British nobleman: as (1) baron 2a (2) a hereditary peer of the rank of marquess, earl, or viscount (3) the son of a duke or a marquess or the eldest son of an earl (4) a bishop of the Church of England c. plural, capitalized House of Lords 4. — used as a British title: as a. — used as part of an official title <Lord Advocate> <Lord Mayor> b. — used informally in place of the full title for a marquess, earl, or viscount c. — used for a baron d. — used by courtesy before the name and surname of a younger son of a duke or a marquess 5. a person chosen to preside over a festival II. intransitive verb Date: 14th century to act like a lord; especially to put on airs — usually used with it <lords it over his friends>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n., int., & v. --n. 1 a master or ruler. 2 hist. a feudal superior, esp. of a manor. 3 a peer of the realm or a person entitled to the title Lord, esp. a marquess, earl, viscount, or baron. 4 (Lord) (often prec. by the) a name for God or Christ. 5 (Lord) a prefixed as the designation of a marquis, earl, viscount, or baron. b prefixed to the Christian name of the younger son of a duke or marquis. c (the Lords) = House of Lords. 6 Astrol. the ruling planet (of a sign, house, or chart). --int. (Lord) expressing surprise, dismay, etc. --v.tr. confer the title of Lord upon. Phrases and idioms: live like a lord live sumptuously. Lord Advocate the principal law-officer of the Crown in Scotland. Lord Bishop the ceremonious title of any bishop. Lord Chamberlain see CHAMBERLAIN. Lord (or Lord High) Chancellor (in the UK) the highest officer of the Crown, presiding in the House of Lords etc. Lord Chief Justice (in the UK) the president of the Queen's Bench Division. lord it over domineer. Lord Lieutenant 1 (in the UK) the chief executive authority and head of magistrates in each county. 2 hist. the viceroy of Ireland. Lord Mayor the title of the mayor in London and some other large cities. Lord Ordinary see ORDINARY n. 5. lord over (usu. in passive) domineer, rule over. Lord President of the Council (in the UK) the cabinet minister presiding at the Privy Council. Lord Privy Seal (in the UK) a senior cabinet minister without official duties. Lord Provost the head of a municipal corporation or borough in certain Scottish cities. lords and ladies wild arum. Lords Commissioners the members of a board performing the duties of a high State office put in commission. Lord's Day Sunday. Lords of Session the judges of the Scottish Court of Session. Lord's Prayer the Our Father, the prayer taught by Christ to his disciples. Lords spiritual the bishops in the House of Lords. Lord's Supper the Eucharist. Lords temporal the members of the House of Lords other than the bishops. Our Lord a name for Christ. Sea Lord a naval member of the Admiralty Board. Derivatives: lordless adj. lordlike adj. Etymology: OE hlaford f. hlafweard = bread-keeper (as LOAF(1), WARD)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lord Lord, n. [Cf. Gr. ? bent so as to be convex in front.] A hump-backed person; -- so called sportively. [Eng.] --Richardson (Dict.).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lord Lord, n. [OE. lord, laverd, loverd, AS. hl[=a]ford, for hl[=a]fweard, i. e., bread keeper; hl[=a]f bread, loaf + weardian to look after, to take care of, to ward. See Loaf, and Ward to guard, and cf. Laird, Lady.] 1. One who has power and authority; a master; a ruler; a governor; a prince; a proprietor, as of a manor. But now I was the lord Of this fair mansion. --Shak. Man over men He made not lord. --Milton. 2. A titled nobleman., whether a peer of the realm or not; a bishop, as a member of the House of Lords; by courtesy; the son of a duke or marquis, or the eldest son of an earl; in a restricted sense, a boron, as opposed to noblemen of higher rank. [Eng.] 3. A title bestowed on the persons above named; and also, for honor, on certain official persons; as, lord advocate, lord chamberlain, lord chancellor, lord chief justice, etc. [Eng.] 4. A husband. ``My lord being old also.'' --Gen. xviii. 12. Thou worthy lord Of that unworthy wife that greeteth thee. --Shak. 5. (Feudal Law) One of whom a fee or estate is held; the male owner of feudal land; as, the lord of the soil; the lord of the manor. 6. The Supreme Being; Jehovah. Note: When Lord, in the Old Testament, is printed in small capitals, it is usually equivalent to Jehovah, and might, with more propriety, be so rendered. 7. The Savior; Jesus Christ. House of Lords, one of the constituent parts of the British Parliament, consisting of the lords spiritual and temporal. Lord high chancellor, Lord high constable, etc. See Chancellor, Constable, etc. Lord justice clerk, the second in rank of the two highest judges of the Supreme Court of Scotland. Lord justice general, or Lord president, the highest in rank of the judges of the Supreme Court of Scotland. Lord keeper, an ancient officer of the English crown, who had the custody of the king's great seal, with authority to affix it to public documents. The office is now merged in that of the chancellor. Lord lieutenant, a representative of British royalty: the lord lieutenant of Ireland being the representative of royalty there, and exercising supreme administrative authority; the lord lieutenant of a county being a deputy to manage its military concerns, and also to nominate to the chancellor the justices of the peace for that county. Lord of misrule, the master of the revels at Christmas in a nobleman's or other great house. --Eng. Cyc. Lords spiritual, the archbishops and bishops who have seats in the House of Lords. Lords temporal, the peers of England; also, sixteen representative peers of Scotland, and twenty-eight representatives of the Irish peerage. Our lord, Jesus Christ; the Savior. The Lord's Day, Sunday; the Christian Sabbath, on which the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. The Lord's Prayer, the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples. --Matt. vi. 9-13. The Lord's Supper. (a) The paschal supper partaken of by Jesus the night before his crucifixion. (b) The sacrament of the eucharist; the holy communion. The Lord's Table. (a) The altar or table from which the sacrament is dispensed. (b) The sacrament itself.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lord Lord, v. t. 1. To invest with the dignity, power, and privileges of a lord. [R.] --Shak. 2. To rule or preside over as a lord. [R.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Lord Lord, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lorded; p. pr. & vb. n. Lording.] To play the lord; to domineer; to rule with arbitrary or despotic sway; -- sometimes with over; and sometimes with it in the manner of a transitive verb. The whiles she lordeth in licentious bliss. --Spenser. I see them lording it in London streets. --Shak. And lorded over them whom now they serve. --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Misrule Mis*rule", n. 1. The act, or the result, of misruling. 2. Disorder; confusion; tumult from insubordination. Enormous riot and misrule surveyed. --Pope. Abbot, or Lord, of Misrule. See under Abbot, and Lord.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(lords) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. In Britain, a lord is a man who has a high rank in the nobility, for example an earl, a viscount, or a marquis. She married a lord and lives in this huge house in the Cotswolds... A few days earlier he had received a telegram from Lord Lloyd. N-COUNT; N-TITLE 2. In Britain, judges, bishops, and some male members of the nobility are addressed as 'my Lord'. My lord, I am instructed by my client to claim that the evidence has been tampered with. N-VOC: my N [politeness] 3. In Britain, Lord is used in the titles of some officials of very high rank. He was Lord Chancellor from 1970 until 1974. ...Sir Brian Hutton, the Lord Chief Justice for Northern Ireland. 4. The Lords is the same as the House of Lords. It's very likely the bill will be defeated in the Lords. N-PROPER-COLL: the N 5. In the Christian church, people refer to God and to Jesus Christ as the Lord. I know the Lord will look after him... She prayed now. 'Lord, help me to find courage.' ...the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. N-PROPER: usu the N; N-VOC see also Our Lord 6. Lord is used in exclamations such as 'good Lord!' and 'oh Lord!' to express surprise, shock, frustration, or annoyance about something. 'Good lord, that's what he is: he's a policeman.'... 'They didn't fire you for drinking, did they?'—'Lord, no! I only drink beer, nowadays.' EXCLAM [feelings]

Easton's Bible Dictionary

There are various Hebrew and Greek words so rendered.

(1.) Heb. Jehovah, has been rendered in the English Bible LORD, printed in small capitals. This is the proper name of the God of the Hebrews. The form "Jehovah" is retained only in Ex. 6:3; Ps. 83:18; Isa. 12:2; 26:4, both in the Authorized and the Revised Version.

(2.) Heb. 'adon, means one possessed of absolute control. It denotes a master, as of slaves (Gen. 24:14, 27), or a ruler of his subjects (45:8), or a husband, as lord of his wife (18:12).

The old plural form of this Hebrew word is _'adonai_. From a superstitious reverence for the name "Jehovah," the Jews, in reading their Scriptures, whenever that name occurred, always pronounced it _'Adonai_.

(3.) Greek kurios, a supreme master, etc. In the LXX. this is invariably used for "Jehovah" and "'Adonai."

(4.) Heb. ba'al, a master, as having domination. This word is applied to human relations, as that of husband, to persons skilled in some art or profession, and to heathen deities. "The men of Shechem," literally "the baals of Shechem" (Judg. 9:2, 3). These were the Israelite inhabitants who had reduced the Canaanites to a condition of vassalage (Josh. 16:10; 17:13).

(5.) Heb. seren, applied exclusively to the "lords of the Philistines" (Judg. 3:3). The LXX. render it by satrapies. At this period the Philistines were not, as at a later period (1 Sam. 21:10), under a kingly government. (See Josh. 13:3; 1 Sam. 6:18.) There were five such lordships, viz., Gath, Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Master, ruler, governor, sovereign, king, monarch, superior, prince. 2. Noble, nobleman, peer. 3. Husband, spouse. 4. God, Jehovah. See god. 5. Christ, the Saviour, the Master.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A crooked or hump-backed man. These unhappy people afford great scope for vulgar raillery; such as, 'Did you come straight from home? if so, you have got confoundedly bent by the way.' 'Don't abuse the gemman,' adds a by-stander, 'he has been grossly insulted already; don't you see his back's up?' Or someone asks him if the show is behind; 'because I see,' adds he, 'you have the drum at your back.' Another piece of vulgar wit is let loose on a deformed person: If met by a party of soldiers on their march, one of them observes that that gentleman is on his march too, for he has got his knapsack at his back. It is said in the British Apollo, that the title of lord was first given to deformed persons in the reign of Richard III. from several persons labouring under that misfortune being created peers by him; but it is more probably derived from the Greek word [GREEK: lordos], crooked.

Moby Thesaurus

Almighty God, Alpha and Omega, Demiourgos, Demiurge, Eminence, God, God Almighty, Grace, Heaven, Her Excellency, Her Highness, Her Ladyship, Her Majesty, Highness, His Lordship, His Majesty, Honor, I Am, Imperial Highness, Imperial Majesty, Jehovah, King of Kings, Lady, Ladyship, Lord of Lords, Lord of hosts, Lordship, Majesty, My Lady, My Lord, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Providence, Reverence, Royal Highness, Royal Majesty, Serene Highness, Worship, Your Lordship, milady, milord, the Absolute, the Absolute Being, the All-holy, the All-knowing, the All-merciful, the All-powerful, the All-wise, the Almighty, the Creator, the Deity, the Divinity, the Eternal, the Eternal Being, the First Cause, the Infinite, the Infinite Spirit, the Maker, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, the Preserver, the Supreme Being, the Supreme Soul

Moby Thesaurus

Brahman, Christ, God, God Almighty, Jehovah, Jesus, Lord, affect, archduke, aristocrat, armiger, baron, baronet, beneficiary, blue blood, boss, bwana, cestui, cestui que trust, cestui que use, chef, chief, church dignitary, cock, count, daimio, deedholder, domineer, duke, earl, ecclesiarch, elder, employer, esquire, feoffee, feudatory, gentleman, goodman, grand duke, grandee, guru, hidalgo, householder, hubby, husband, lace-curtain, laird, landgrave, landlady, landlord, liege, liege lord, lord it over, lord paramount, lordling, magnate, magnifico, man, margrave, marquis, master, mesne, mesne lord, mister, mistress, monarch, noble, nobleman, old man, optimate, order about, overawe, overbear, overlord, owner, padrone, palsgrave, paramount, paterfamilias, patriarch, patrician, patron, peacock, peer, pontificate, pretend, proprietary, proprietor, proprietress, proprietrix, put on, put on airs, rabbi, rentier, ruler, sahib, seigneur, seignior, silk-stocking, sovereign, squire, starets, swagger, swank, swell, teacher, the Almighty, the Creator, the Supreme Being, thoroughbred, titleholder, tyrannize, upper-cruster, viscount, waldgrave