interreign Now rare.
(ˈɪntəreɪn)
Also 6 -regne, 6–7 -reigne, -raign(e.
[f. inter- 3 + reign, after L. interregnum (see prec.), or F. interrègne (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.); the latter may be the immediate source.]
† 1. = interregnum 1. Obs.
| 1533 Bellenden Livy i. (1822) 30 This governance..wes callit the Interregne; that is to say, the vacance betwix the deith of ane king, to the electioun of ane uthir. 1600 Holland Livy iii. viii. 93 P. Valerius Poplicola, the third day of his Interreigne or Regencie for the time, createth Consuls. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. viii. vii. (1632) 426 Sauing the small Inter-Raignes of these three Danish Kings. |
2. = interregnum 2. Now
unusual.
| 1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 162/2 They..confer togither how they may in this inter-reigne win the spurs, and be vtterlie deliuered from the English gouernement. 1689 Def. Liberty agst. Tyrants 74 Succession was tollerated to avoid..contentions, interraigns, and other discommodities of Elections. 1775 Planta in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 139 The confusions, divisions, and interreigns which frequently distracted the empire. 1828 Thirlwall & Hare tr. Niebuhr's Hist. Rome (1855) I. 265 It very easily..happened that the outgoing magistrates did not complete the election, and that an interreign took place. |
| fig. a 1854 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets iv. (1857) 116 The literary interreign between Chaucer and Spenser. |