Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Chiefly British Variant of honor.
Wiktionary
- n. Recognition of importance or spiritual value; respect.
- n. Favourable reputation; dignity; sense of self-worth.
- n. An objectification of praiseworthiness or respect; something that represents praiseworthiness or respect, such as an award given by the state to a citizen.
- n. A privilege.
- n. heraldry The centre point of the upper half of an armorial escutcheon; also honour point.
- n. card games In bridge, an ace, king, queen, jack, or ten especially of the trump suit. In some other games, an ace, king, queen or jack.
- n. golf The right to play one's ball before one's opponent plays his.
- n. in the plural =honours degree: a university qualification of the highest rank.
- v. To think of highly, to respect highly, to recognise the importance or spiritual value of
- v. To confer an honour or privilege upon (someone).
- v. To conform with, obey (e.g. a treaty or promise)
- v. To make payment in respect of (a cheque, banker's draft etc).
GNU Webster's 1913
- Brit. Same as honor; -- chiefly British usage.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a woman's virtue or chastity
- v. show respect towards
- v. bestow honor or rewards upon
- v. accept as pay
- n. the quality of being honorable and having a good name
- n. the state of being honored
- n. a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman honour, honur, from Old French honor, from Latin honor. Displaced native Middle English menske ("honor, dignity among men"), from Old English mensk ("honor"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I give you my word of honour as a man -- my word of _honour_, mind you!”
“In speaking to them, however, they always used the most abject language, and the most humble tone and posture -- "_Please your honour; and please your honour's honour_" they knew must be repeated as a charm at the beginning and end of every equivocating, exculpatory, or supplicatory sentence; and they were much more alert in doffing their caps to these new men, than to those of what they call _good old families_.”
“_must_ vindicate his honour yet where I have known such things happen they might have been prevented _with honour_ if the parties had not allowed their passions to get the better of their reason; and you must remember there is never honour to be acquired by being quarrelsome, but the reverse, and that your life ought now to be devoted to the service of your King and country.”
A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861
“Let no critic cavil at the word _honourably_, as it relates to trade: punctual payment is the honour of trade, and there is a word always used among merchants which justifies my using it in this place; and that is, when a merchant draws a bill from abroad upon his friend at London, his correspondent in London answering his letter, and approving his drawing upon him, adds, that he shall be sure to _honour_ his bill when it appears; that is to say, to accept it.”
“a sentry pull off his fire, can swear that such was the case with that officer -- he can do more than swearing, for he can give his word of honour, and I think that idea _honour_ is the same in every country.”
Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette
“The world pays civil honour to it [a jewel said to be Alfred's] on the probability; we pay _religious honour_ to relics, if so be, on the probability.”
“I. iii.66 (24,4) It is an honour] The modern editors all read, _it is an honour_.”
“A fool, a wicked man, in honour, is really as despicable an animal as any under the sun; he is like the beasts that perish (v. 20); nay, it is better to be a beast than to be a man that makes himself like a beast.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)
“For some reason, the term honour killings seems to be reserved for murders committed by male family members against daughters or sisters in South Asian or Middle Eastern communities.”
“The term honour killing itself should be thrown out for one.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘honour’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Words Associated With Jesus
Words that indentify Jesus and His Salvation to those who seek Him.
hope, grace, love, faith, salvation, truth, eternity, heaven, god, holy spirit, bible, scripture and 191 more...
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Invincible space monkey
That which exist only in our minds
moral, honour, dignity, loyalty, virtue, justice, right, wrong, truth, ethics, property, value and 17 more...
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Snooty
Words that think way too much of themselves
notoriety, posh, victorian, mien, terrace, veritable, ambivalent, paradox, hypocrisy, damned, caprice, renaissance and 8 more...
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Shadowkeir's list
This list, the one shown below this very message, is a collection of words that you cannot begin to fathom how much I adore. The list will also feature atithesis and contrasting words such as the t...
wishful, anticlimactic, forte, monchromatic, septic, wonderous, isoclinal, deformed, disintergrate, favourite, laughable, awe-inspiring and 250 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Unusual and Random Words
My Favourite Kind
quagmire, soliloquy, aardvark, topaz, ardent, exquisite, pyromania, pyre, extravagant, obscure, quetzal, quibble and 199 more...
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geekwad's Words
mysterium, elif, reckon, shadowy, ostensibly, unique, foodie, surreptitiously, asynchronous, insane, berserk, space pirate and 235 more...
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Beowulf
kennings, prowess, danes, squadroned, mandate, heir, woe, endowed, warrior, nigh, liegemen, lauded and 16 more...
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waterfront words
themes and values
honour, united, wisdom, ethics, guilt, dignity, loyalty, remorse, niave, power, heroism, love and 25 more...
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refined_rilo's Words
atmospheric, winsome, turpitude, lackadaisical, callipygian, ambivalent, sloth, ineptitude, delirium, melancholia, hussy, hookerbot and 47 more...
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Fryin's Words of nonsensical Wisdom
...the imprint of cataclysmic events exist in the brain like a stain on an old dusty blanket in the closet...
irascible, kooky, boss, tits, and how, musty, sick-house, abort, bong, symbiosis, weapon, see and 23 more...
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Dimélion's "Best of"
words i absolutely love!
affinity, bittersweet, deft, catharsis, rook, elysium, yggdrasil, virtue, indefinitely, slake, archaic, arcane and 81 more...
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Ersatz's Words
perlucidus, plethora, cope, moonglade, spice, wistful, eviscerate, ripple, sacrosanct, villain, honour, platypus and 17 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for honour.

dimã©lion ouch. that one hurt. Nov 28, 2008
sonofgroucho "The word 'honour' in the mouth of Mr Webster is like the word 'love' in the mouth of a whore". Ralph Waldo Emerson of Daniel Webster, US politician. Dec 29, 2006