eyre

E1Y4R1E1
US/ɛəɹ/US/ɛɹ/

noun

A journey taken by certain Medieval English itinerant judges (justices in eyre)

Less commonScrabble 7

Meanings

eyre1

nouneyre (plural eyres)

plural eyres

  1. UKhistoricallawA journey taken by certain Medieval English itinerant judges (justices in eyre)

    The fact that the Surrey veredicta are uncancelled, and indeed their very survival, can doubtless be explained by the suspension of the eyre in June 1294, when consideration of the crown pleas had barely begun;

    1982, Public Record Office Handbooks, page 35
    1 more example

    None of the original veredicta survive for this eyre, but one of the best surviving examples, and the only one so far to be printed, comes from the Wiltshire eyre which began in the southern eyre circuit at Wilton on the same day as the 1281 Derbyshire eyre began at Derb, and which provides a valuable insight into the nature and contents of the lost Derbyshire veredicta.

    2000, Aileen Hopkinson, editor, The Rolls of the 1281 Derbyshire Eyre, Derbyshire Record Society, →ISBN, page xvi

Eyre2

proper nounEyre (countable and uncountable, plural Eyres)

plural Eyres

  1. countableuncountableA surname.
  2. countableuncountableA former township in the municipality of Dysart et al, Haliburton County, Ontario, Canada.

Origin

  1. Latiniter
  2. Old Frencherre“journey, march, way”
  3. Middle Englisheire
  4. Englisheyre

From Middle English eire, from Old French erre (“journey, march, way”), from Latin iter, itineris (“a going, way”), from the root of ire (“to go”). Compare errant, itinerant, issue.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with eyre

All rhymes →

Sounds the same

airAyrereheirare (unit of measurement)err (one pronunciation)e'er.

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

eyre. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eyre

MLA

“eyre.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eyre. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “eyre,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eyre.

Source: eyre on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.