Home UK English sire

Meaning of sire in English:

sire

Pronunciation /sʌɪə/

Translate sire into Spanish

noun

  • 1The male parent of an animal, especially a stallion or bull kept for breeding.

    ‘the sire is one of the country's top thoroughbred stallions’
    • ‘Four Brahman and four Angus sires were rotated among breeding pastures in both forage systems each year.’
    • ‘Sequencing was done on eight bull sires of Norwegian dairy cattle using Dye Terminator chemistry.’
    • ‘Second-generation hybrids were generated from four parental animals: two sires and two dams.’
    • ‘In the US, stallion fees for new sires have come down significantly.’
    • ‘Quadratic is the sire of three current stallions led by Home At Last, who stands at Nuckols Farm in Kentucky for $2,500.’
    • ‘With his fine breeding on his sire's side, this bull should bring in a lot of money.’
    • ‘It is well known that if a trait is heritable, the easiest and most practical way to change the trait in a herd of cattle is through selection of the sire.’
    • ‘There were disproportionate numbers of female or male births consistently produced by some sires.’
    • ‘Many dairy farmers use natural service sires to overcome problems associated with estrous detection.’
    • ‘Scientists are looking for genetic variation within the breed that would allow producers to choose sires based on the beef tenderness of their progeny and other characteristics.’
    • ‘If the sire was determined to be Angus or Brangus, then conception date was determined by subtracting 283 d from calving date.’
    • ‘When few or no ancestors are common to the sire and dam, the breeding is known as an outcross.’
    • ‘As is typical of cow herds, the sires were not in contact with their calves.’
    • ‘Large, high-gaining sires produce calves with large birth weights.’
    • ‘Larger territorial males were more likely to sire the entire clutch or share paternity with fewer additional sires than smaller territorial males.’
    • ‘Mott's family started selecting sires for lower birth weights years ago.’

  • 2archaic A respectful form of address for someone of high social status, especially a king.

    • ‘We honestly did not know we had trespassed on your lands, sire.’
    1. 2.1A father or other male forebear.
      • ‘I never really knew my father, while the rest admired their noble sires.’

verb

[with object]

  • 1(of a male animal, especially a stallion) cause the birth of.

    ‘Castor twice sired two champions in a litter’
    • ‘We conclude that the chicks were sired by extrapair males.’
    • ‘He never showed much interest in the number of departmental female elephants around and never sired a calf.’
    • ‘The heifer calves were from crossbred cows sired by Eimousin bulls.’
    • ‘Calves were sired by Artificial Insemination or in single sire mating pastures.’
    • ‘Saithor, an 11-year-old son of Storm Bird, has sired nine foals from one American crop of racing age.’
    • ‘Similar to a paternity suit, the owners must prove they do not know which horse sired the foal.’
    • ‘He has sired four foals out in two crops of racing age, with five yearlings in his third crop.’
    • ‘In order to obtain the permit, the Gallaghers appealed to the Jockey Club and proved they do not know who sired the filly.’
    • ‘Some males sire many offspring, and many males sire no offspring, a dynamic that intensifies male-male competition.’
    • ‘At the age of 12 months, a healthy male deer can sire 2 to 3 calves from a female in nine months.’
    • ‘The probability of dominant males siring infants decreased when the number of simultaneously tumescent females increased.’
    • ‘About 20 percent of males mature when only 2 years old and spend their lives siring offspring in other males' nests.’
    • ‘We collected DNA samples from 811 offspring from 45 litters that were collectively sired by 48 males.’
    • ‘Males are expected to provide less care to offspring sired by other males.’
    • ‘Information on mating and spacing patterns was obtained by mapping offspring sired by individual males.’
    • ‘Certainly, mating systems in which a male is able to sire many offspring with many different females will cause natural selection to favor different traits than one in which a male is limited to one female.’
    • ‘Not only social mating success but also the ability of males to sire offspring is related to the expression of secondary sexual characters.’
    • ‘The higher the concentration of dioxin in the serum of exposed males, the less likely they were to sire a male child.’
    • ‘Two of the control males had most likely sired one and two offspring, respectively, in one nest each.’
    • ‘He has sired ten foals of racing age and ten yearlings in his first two crops.’
    1. 1.1literary (especially of a man) cause a pregnancy resulting in the birth of (a child)
      ‘he was a gross, corpulent fellow, sired by a comic actor’
      • ‘I have sired no offspring, created no universes, I cannot walk through walls and I've never been killed at Easter.’
      • ‘There will always be plenty of babies sired by dominant men.’
      • ‘About 40 percent of the babies were sired by someone other than the mother's mate.’
      • ‘In biological terms, men can sire hundreds of children in their lives, but this biological ability is limited by the fact that no one woman can keep pace.’
      • ‘During those 130 years Adam sired children by beings other than Eve.’
      father, sire, engender, generate, spawn, create, give life to, bring into being, bring into the world, have

Origin

Middle English (in sire (sense 2 of the noun)): from Old French, from an alteration of Latin senior (see senior). sire (sense 1 of the noun) dates from the early 16th century.