Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Flesh; brawn.
  • noun A cloth manufactured in England in the fifteenth century, and apparently a valuable and rich fabric.
  • noun An obsolete form of leer.

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

  • noun Plural form of lira.
  • noun Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, ornithology The Manx shearwater (bird).
  • noun Northern England, Scotland Flesh, brawn, or muscle; the fleshy part of a person or animal in contradistinction to the bone and skin.
  • noun Scotland The fleshy part of a roast capon, etc. as distinguished from a limb or joint.
  • noun Scotland The cheek.
  • noun Scotland Face; appearance of the face or skin; complexion; hue.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian lire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse líri. Cognate with Norwegian lira.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lire, lyre, from Old English līra ("any fleshy part of the body, muscle, calf of the leg").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lire, lyre, from Old Norse hlýr ("cheeks", plural). Compare Middle English lere, from Old English hlēor ("cheek, countenance, complexion"). More at leer.

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Examples

  • It granted the pope royal honors and prerogatives and full liberty in the exercise of his religious functions; representatives of foreign powers at the Vatican received diplomatic rights and immunities; the pope received an annual income of 3.25 million lire from the Italian treasury and full enjoyment of the Vatican and other palaces with rights of extraterritoriality.

    2. The Kingdom of Italy 2001

  • Sailors sometimes call the Italian money "lira money," because the lire, which is worth about the same as the French _franc_, or twenty cents, is the common unit of Italian currency.

    Dave Darrin on Mediterranean Service or, With Dan Dalzell on European Duty 1895

  • The next time I met this student he had completed his studies and was employed as a clerk in the Italian railway station at Chiasso, the frontier town on the S. Gottardo, at an annual salary of 1,080 lire, which is about 43 pounds 4s.

    Diversions in Sicily Henry Festing Jones 1889

  • What is the nominalization of the French verb "lire"?

    Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions 2010

  • One friend wrote that he was a demanding visitor, expecting to be fed and running up vast long-distance telephone bills: At the end of the visit he would offer 10,000 lire about £4, saying he hadn't used the 'phone much.

    "The Letters of Bruce Chatwin" Jonathan Yardley 2011

  • One friend wrote that he was a demanding visitor, expecting to be fed and running up vast long-distance telephone bills: At the end of the visit he would offer 10,000 lire about £4, saying he hadn't used the 'phone much.

    "The Letters of Bruce Chatwin" Jonathan Yardley 2011

  • From there, he would bring back postcards, sedulously and with obvious pleasure gleaned from their racks in various museums and churches at 10 to 20 lire each: Caravaggios, Bellinis, Michelangelos.

    The Forever City Robert Hughes 2011

  • C'est intéréssant pour ceux qui aiment lire en français, comme moi.

    bibi - French Word-A-Day 2009

  • Bravado a lire keeps there inside them. when you dig yourself so far into the grave that you cant get out you have to protect yourself and slap all treats down before you can control them by your bravado and false hoods and mysticism.

    Dr Gyi 2010

  • Ravie de lire que ta grossesse se passe aussi bien.

    knocked update 2009

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