[See -SHIP.]
1. † a. The performance of a knight or soldier; military service. Obs. † b. Knightly character; valor. Obs. c. The rank or position of a knight; knighthood. d. The territory of a knight.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 243. Cnihtscipe [L. militia] is mannes lif upen eorðe.
c. 1205. Lay., 26747. Cuðeð eouwer cniht-scipe.
c. 1325. Poem Times Edw. II., 265, in Pol. Songs (Camden), 335. Knihtshipe is acloied and deolfulliche i-diht; Kunne a boy nu breke a spere, he shal be mad a kniht.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 14405. Of knyght-schipe nobely he proued.
1620. in Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1849), II. 214. Sir James Whitelocke is gone to be judge of Wales and Chester, which place came not to him gratis, though perhaps his knightship was cast into the bargain.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 123. A … government … formed out of the several knightships which were now become absolute and independent sovereignties.
2. With poss. pron. as a title or form of address.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. v. (1737), 17. We have not the Honour to be acquainted with their Knightships.
1831. in Keepsake, 307.
| But gout and sixty well-spent years | |
| Had made his knightship tame, | |
| And, spite of flannel, crutch, and cares, | |
| Sir Sam was very lame. |
