noun
definition
The owner of a Scottish estate; a member of the landed gentry, a landowner.
definition
Often in the form Laird of, followed by a patronymic: a Scottish clan chief.
verb
definition
Chiefly as laird it over: to behave like a laird, particularly to act haughtily or to domineer; to lord (it over).
Examples of lairds in a Sentence
He also was provost of Edinburgh at various times, and it is a remarkable instance of the esteem in which the lairds of Merchiston were held that three of them in immediate lineal succession repeatedly filled so important an office during perhaps the most memorable period in the history of the city.
Meanwhile James visited the Border, hanged some brigand lairds, and reduced such English partisans as the Kers, Rutherfords, Stewarts of Traquair, Veitches and Turnbulls.
The cardinal, however, punished the church-sackers and imprisoned George Douglas, while Hertford in 1544 moved with a large army against Scotland, and Henry negotiated with a crew of discontented lairds and a man named Wishart for the murder or capture of Beaton.
The nobles of the country, the ministers and lairds, met in Edinburgh and sent a petition against the liturgy to Charles.
Q. Can I make any money from this plot of land A. No Q. can children become lairds?
Nearby is a watchtower built by the lairds to spy on tenants fishing offshore and also to watch out for the Customs.
This note has thus given in detail the descendants of the four old lairds of Garnkirk.
Another successful industry imported by the 18th century lairds was the weaving of linen.
Did too many other local lairds hold property in Innermessan to allow the Kennedies undisputed sway?
It was founded in 1776 by Sir James Grant of Grant, and became the chief seat of that ancient family, who had lived on their adjoining estate of Freuchie (Gaelic, fraochach, " heathery") since the beginning of the 15th century, and hence were usually described as the lairds of Freuchie.