Caid

//kɑːˈiːd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A local governor or leader, especially in North Africa or Moorish Spain; an alcaide. historical

    "Having taken over the land, the caids procured labour for themselves by conscripting people for forced farm work, calling the practice a form of Touiza, which was a centuries-old practice of mutual help in the rural areas."

  2. 2
    Any of various ancient and traditional Irish football games. uncountable
  3. 3
    Modern Gaelic football. Ireland, uncountable

Example

More examples

"Having taken over the land, the caids procured labour for themselves by conscripting people for forced farm work, calling the practice a form of Touiza, which was a centuries-old practice of mutual help in the rural areas."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Arabic قَائِد (qāʔid, “leader”), probably through French caïd (or at least influenced by it in pronunciation). Doublet of alcaide and Alkaid.

Etymology 2

From Irish caid (“stuffed ball; football”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.