1 used as a polite way of addressing a man whose name you do not know, for example in a shop/store or restaurant, or to show respect:
Good morning, sir. Can I help you? * Are you ready to order, sir? * 'Report to me tomorrow, corporal!' 'Yes, sir!' * 'Thank you very much.' 'You're welcome, sir. Have a nice day.'
compareMA'AM
seealsoMADAM
2 (Dear Sir / Sirs) used at the beginning of a formal business letter when you do not know the name of the man or people that you are dealing with:
Dear Sir / Sirs * Dear Sir or Madam
3 (Sir) a title that is used before the first name of a man who has received one of the highest British honours (= a KNIGHT), or before the first name of a BARONET:
Sir Paul McCartney * Thank you, Sir Paul.
compareLADY
4 (BrE) used as a form of address by children in school to a male teacher:
Please, sir, can I open a window?
compareMISS
IDIOMS
no sir!
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for sir is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is sir a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, sir is tagged as noun.
Does sir appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — sir appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
