Cheshire

Group Captain (Geoffrey) Leonard. 1917--92, British philanthropist: awarded the Victoria Cross in World War II; founded the Leonard Cheshire Foundation Homes for the Disabled: married Sue, Baroness Ryder

Cheshire

a county of NW England: low-lying and undulating, bordering on the Pennines in the east; mainly agricultural: the geographic and ceremonial county includes Warrington and Halton, which became independent unitary authorities in 1998. Administrative centre: Chester. Pop. (excluding unitary authorities): 678 700 (2003 est.). Area (excluding unitary authorites): 2077 sq. km (802 sq. miles)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Cheshire

(pop culture)

The highly accomplished international mercenary and assassin Cheshire was introduced in The New Teen Titans Annual #2 (1983) in a story written by Marv Wolfman and rendered by George Pérez, as Jade, an orphan of French-Vietnamese heritage who is doomed to a life of slavery until she murders her master and is unofficially adopted by ex-Blackhawk member Wen Ch'ang. Ch'ang teaches Jade the subtler points of the art of guerilla warfare, including skilled hand-to-hand combat. After she couples this talent with an education in mercenary arts and the craft of poison, which she gains from her brief marriage to Kruen Musenda, the Spitting Cobra, Jade emerges as killer-for-hire Cheshire. The self-determined Cheshire can hold her own in a fight with any hero; as a triple-jointed acrobat she can tangle with—and conquer—the most lithe. She has also been known to conceal poison in her razor-sharp fingernails, giving her that extra edge in combat. She has continually battled the Teen Titans, the all-girl hero group Birds of Prey, and— with fellow vixens the Cheetah and Poison Ivy— Wonder Woman. The wild-haired villainess has led the Ravens, an all-female supervillain team. Never one for maternal instincts, Cheshire gave custody of her daughter Lian to Roy Harper (the hero Arsenal), with whom she had a brief affair. Although she spent time incarcerated while awaiting a crimes-against-humanity charge for detonating a nuclear device in the Middle Eastern country Qurac, in 2005 Cheshire resurfaced in the DC miniseries Villains United, as one of the Secret Six. She had an affair with fellow Sixer Catman and taunted that she might be carrying his child. After betraying her teammates to Lex Luthor's Society, Cheshire took a bullet to the chest courtesy of Deathstroke the Terminator, who remarked, “We don't need any traitors in the Society.”

Cheshire

cat vanishes at will; grin the last feature to go. [Br. Lit.: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland]

See: Invisibility

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Cheshire

a county in Great Britain. Population, 902,300 (1974). The administrative center of Cheshire is Chester. Cheshire’s main industries are chemicals, nonferrous metallurgy, and machine building. Dairy farming is the chief sector of the county’s agriculture. Cheshire’s industrial centers—Warrington, Widnes, and Runcorn—are situated along the Manchester Canal. Salt is mined in the region.

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References in classic literature

`I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didn't know that cats COULD grin.'

`If it had grown up,' she said to herself, `it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.' And she began thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying to herself, `if one only knew the right way to change them--' when she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.

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Adam remained silent nearly all the time they were travelling through the alleged Vale of Cheshire. He thought much during that journey and came to several conclusions, though his lips were unmoved.

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Toller, "Cheshire was all right--all fair and above board.

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Mr Verloc, sitting perplexed and frightened in the small parlour of the Cheshire Cheese, could not help acknowledging that to himself, because his sensibility did not stand in the way of his judgment.

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I took the place in the coach not to its full extent, but to a place called Stone, in Cheshire, I think it is, where I not only had no manner of business, but not so much as the least acquaintance with any person in the town or near it.

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Didn't he cross the fight between Bill Soames and the Cheshire Trump, by which I lost forty pound?

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CHESHIRE'S police and crime commissioner has designated funding to help set-up more Neighbourhood Watch schemes across the county.

Cash aid to help you keep Watch on crime

Cheshire's police and crime commissionerhas designated funding to help set-up more Neighbourhood Watch schemes across the county.

Increase in funding for Neighbourhood Watch schemes in Cheshire; Police and crime commissioner allocates more funding to involve more residents in initiative

A DONATION of PS17,000 from Cheshire Freemasons to "Girlguiding Cheshire Forest" has helped transform a dream into a fabulous reality for youngsters across Cheshire.

Cheshire; THE PAGE YOU WRITE ... EVERY DAY IN YOUR FAVOURITE PAPER ECHO

Three 'Silent Soldiers' have been unveiled in Cheshire East as part of this year's programme of events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Silent Soldier unveiled at Crewe Memorial Square; The near life-size silhouettes of a 'Tommy' have been sponsored by Cheshire East Council in support of a national campaign by The Royal British Legion