Definition of "esquire" in English

noun

1. (usually US, law) A lawyer.

2. A male member of the gentry ranking below a knight.

   • Esquires and gentlemen are confounded together by Sir Edward Coke, who observes that every esquire is a gentleman, and a gentleman is defined to be one qui arma gerit, who bears coat-armour, the grant of which was thought to add gentility to a man's family. It is indeed a matter somewhat unsettled what constitutes the distinction, or who is a real esquire; for no estate, however large, per se confers this rank upon its owner.

3. An honorific sometimes placed after a man's name.

4. A gentleman who attends or escorts a lady in public.

5. (archaic) A squire; a youth who in the hopes of becoming a knight attended upon a knight

6. (obsolete) A shield-bearer, but also applied to other attendants.

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To attend, wait on, escort.

noun

1. (heraldry, rare) The lower of the halves into which a square is divided diagonally, a single gyron, but potentially larger (extending across the shield) or smaller (for example, on Mortimer's arms).

   • Thre pallets between ij Esquires bast dexter and sinister of the second.