Lord Mayor
1. A title formerly limited to the mayors (see mayor) of London, York, and Dublin, but subsequently extended to the mayors of some other large towns, e.g. Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, etc.
Lord Mayor's coal (see quot. 1842). Lord Mayor's day, Nov. 9, the day on which the Lord Mayor goes in procession with the Aldermen and other city dignitaries to and from Westminster, where he receives from the Lord Chancellor the assent of the Crown to his election. Lord Mayor's man: see quota-man, quota 4. Lord Mayor's show, the procession on Lord Mayor's day.
| c 1554 Bale Decl. Bonner's Articles i. 7 b, Here is as wise an order towardes, as maister Harry my Lord Mayres foole had bene of counsell therein. 1589 J. Rider Bibl. Scholast. 885 The Lorde maior, or chiefe iustice, præfectus prætorio. 1605 Marston Dutch Courtezan iii. i. D 4 b, All will scarce make me so high as one of the Gyants stilts that stalkes before my Lord Maiors pageant. 1638 Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 38 Had it not been to see my Lord Mayors shew, I had not been seene in the citie. 1678 Will of R. Saunders (Somerset Ho.), A Lord Mayor's spoon. 1717 Prior Alma i. 377 If you dine with my lord mayor, Roast⁓beef and venison is your fare. 1761 Ann. Reg. 235 A proverb, that the lord mayor's day is generally a bad one. 1807 Sir R. Wilson Jrnl. 7 June in Life (1862) II. viii. 253, I..would not have exchanged meals with the Lord Mayor of London. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg., Aunt Fanny, Had the coal been a ‘Lord Mayor's coal’,—viz. a slate. 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxxii. (1860) 286 Burnside was in the habit of saying that he was like the Lord Mayor's fool—fond of everything that was good. a 1865 Greville Mem. ii. (1885) II. 51 The Queen must have known it was Lord Mayor's Day. |
2. slang. ‘A large crowbar’ (Farmer).
| 1889 D. C. Murray Danger. Catspaw 24 There's..the crowbar, from a Lord Mayor down to a pocket jemmy. |
Hence Lord-ˈMayoralty, the position of Lord Mayor.
| 1882 Society 4 Nov. 16/1 Lord mayoralties and high shrievalties follow almost as a matter of course. |