braconnière

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In the later times of complete armor, a defense for the thighs and hips, composed of ring-shaped plates of steel worn horizontally one below another, forming a kind of skirt, and secured to one another either by vertical straps to which each plate was riveted, or by being sewed to a skirt of stuff, or by rivets sliding in grooves. See Almain-rivet.