Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A piece of armor for protecting the breast and back.
- n. The breastplate alone.
- n. A defense or protection: "A carefully primped irony, that cuirass of art in the early Eighties, is necessary—a distance so affected as to constitute a hopeless impediment to feeling” ( Robert Hughes).
- n. Zoology A protective covering of bony plates or scales.
- v. To protect with a cuirass.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A piece of defensive armor covering the body from the neck to the girdle, and combining a breastplate and a backpiece. Such a protection was used among the ancients in various forms, but under different names (see breastplate, thorax), and is still worn by the heavy cavalry specifically called
cuirassicrs in the French and other European armies. The cuirass seems to have been first adopted in England in the reign of Charles I., when the light cavalry were armed with buff coats, having the breast and back covered with steel plates. Subsequently this piece of armor fell into disuse, and was resumed by the English only after the battle of Waterloo, where the charges of the French cuirassiers were very effective. - n. Any similar covering, as the protective armor of a ship; specifically, in zoology, some hard shell or other covering forming an indurated defensive shield, as the carapace of a beetle or an armadillo, the bony plates of a mailed fish, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. A piece of defensive armor, covering the body from the neck to the girdle.
- n. The breastplate taken by itself.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A piece of defensive armor, covering the body from the neck to the girdle.
- n. The breastplate taken by itself.
- n. (Zoöl) An armor of bony plates, somewhat resembling a cuirass.
WordNet 3.0
- n. medieval body armor that covers the chest and back
Etymologies
- From Old French cuirace, see Modern french cuirasse. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English curas, from Old French curasse, probably alteration (influenced by Old French cuir, leather) of Old Provençal coirassa, from Late Latin coriācea (vestis), leather (garment), feminine of coriāceus, from Latin corium, hide. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Primitive armour was based on a leather foundation, hence the name cuirass, was derived from _cuir_ (leather).”
“The cuirass was the parade one; the one he had used in battle was too worn and hacked to match the splendors around.”
“Persian; and there the Circassian* with his long hair and chain cuirass.”
“Golden, in his _Five Nations_, writes of the Red Indians as wearing "a kind of cuirass made of pieces of wood joined together.”
“Their bodies were protected by a vest of quilted cotton, impervious to light missiles, and over this the chiefs wore mantles of gorgeous feather-work, and the richer of them a kind of cuirass of gold or silver plates.”
“A two-year-old boy died after falling on a 'cuirass' fish and one of its bones pierced his brain on Monday.”
“In 1883 Mr. Leaf wrote: "I take it that the _zoma_ means the waist of the cuirass which is covered by the _zoster_, and has the upper edge of the _mitrê_ or plated apron beneath it fastened round the warrior's body. ...”
“So, thanks to French and Latin, English-speakers now sink their teeth into cuirass, carnage, carnality, and carnivore.”
“He smote the broad chest with his knuckles, and pressed and prodded the thick muscle-pads that covered the shoulders like a cuirass.”
“The legionary is dressed in a galea, a metal helmet with cheek guards, and a cuirass, body armour comprising overlapping iron plates.”
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Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cuirass’.
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defense
shield, aegis, armor, cuirass, plastron, inured, reinforced, cataphract, proof, targus, buckler, shield bearer and 123 more...
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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Gygax's Glossary
In hesitant beginning of a tribute to the man who—before Nabokov or Joyce or anyone 1000 times more exalted—infected me with a fever for language.
psionic, prismatic, gelatinous, dweomer, initiative, kobold, geas, shambling, gibbering, cuirass, halberd, ioun stone and 4 more...
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RPG
rogue, alchemy, lady's favor, trollkin, herald's call, critical hit, insect plague, alteration, conjuration, destruction, mysticism, illusion and 65 more...
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Pseudo-seduction
With which to confuse innocent ladies (or gentlemen, if you prefer) who might be invited to don a coverslut and come to tour an adulterine castle. Plausible deniability through lexicographical obsc...
adulterine, coverslut, cunctatory, puissant, quincunx, coccyx, groin vault, sexpartite vault, nookshaft, putlog hole, cuirass, mensuration and 35 more...
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Pneumonic Devices
Machines, apparatuses, or techniques to get air into the lungs or bloodstream.
Be sure to visit the (almost) homophonous list Mnemonic Devices.heart-lung machine, cardiopulmonary b..., rebreather, pump-oxygenator, Gibbons pump, pump-lung, artificial lung, mechanical ventil..., ventilator, respirator, iron lung, Drinker and Shaw ... and 36 more...
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Greek Fire
being items related to mediaeval warfare, arms and armaments.
caltrop, ballista, trebuchet, mangonel, petard, onager, petrary, hurlbat, francisca, crossbow, longbow, flail and 97 more...
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maygra
apropos, advantageous, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, perihelion, mortmain, solitudinous, mediastinus, asumbrative, traveler and 498 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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A Parthian Shot: Archery Words
Just what it says. Archery rocks.
bow, arrow, longbow, crossbow, barebow, recurve, compound bow, flight, arrowhead, nock, feather, yew and 197 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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cutting words
sarcasm, sarx, sarcoptic, syssarcosis, shrew, shrewd, screed, scred, shroud, scroll, scrod, scrutiny and 326 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cuirass.
trivet A piece of armor for protecting the breast and back. / The breastplate alone.
A defense or protection.
Zoology: A protective covering of bony plates or scales.
(Middle English curas, from Old French curasse, probably alteration (influenced by Old French cuir, leather) of Old Provençal coirassa, from Late Latin coricea (vestis), leather (garment), feminine of coriceus, from Latin corium, hide; see sker-1 in Indo-European roots.) Jun 2, 2007
arby This word cracks me up because it sounds vaguely obscene, and yet it's so stodgy and historical. May 9, 2007