Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Heraldry A shield or shield-shaped emblem bearing a coat of arms.
- n. An ornamental or protective plate, as for a keyhole.
- n. Nautical The plate on the stern of a ship inscribed with the ship's name.
- idiom. a blot on (one's) escutcheon Dishonor to one's reputation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In heraldry, the surface upon which are charged a person's armorial bearings, other than the crest, motto, supporters, etc., which are borne separately. This surface is usually shield-shaped, and shield is often used as synonymous with escutcheon. But the escutcheon of a woman is lozenge-shaped and should not be styled a shield, and the sculptured escutcheons of the eighteenth century were commonly panels of fantastic form, surrounded by rococo scrollwork, and usually having a convex rounded surface. (See
cartouche , 7.) The space within the outline of the escutcheon is called, for the purposes of blazon, the field. (Seefield .) A shield used as a bearing is sometimes improperly called an escutcheon. Seeshield . Alsoscutcheon . - n. Something, either artificial or natural, having more or less resemblance to an escutcheon. Specifically— Nautical, the panel on a ship's stern where her name is painted
Wiktionary
- n. heraldry An individual or corporate coat of arms.
- n. A decorative and/or protective plate or bezel to fill the gap between a switch, pipe, valve, control knob, etc., and the surface from which it protrudes.
- n. The insignia around a doorknob's exterior hardware or a door lock's cosmetic plate.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Her.) The surface, usually a shield, upon which bearings are marshaled and displayed. The surface of the escutcheon is called the field, the upper part is called the chief, and the lower part the base (see chiff, and field.). That side of the escutcheon which is on the right hand of the knight who bears the shield on his arm is called dexter, and the other side sinister.
- n. A marking upon the back of a cow's udder and the space above it (the perineum), formed by the hair growing upward or outward instead of downward. It is esteemed an index of milking qualities.
- n. (Naut.) That part of a vessel's stern on which her name is written.
- n. (Carp.) A thin metal plate or shield to protect wood, or for ornament, as the shield around a keyhole.
- n. (Zoöl.) The depression behind the beak of certain bivalves; the ligamental area.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a flat protective covering (on a door or wall etc) to prevent soiling by dirty fingers
- n. a shield; especially one displaying a coat of arms
- n. (nautical) a plate on a ship's stern on which the name is inscribed
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman escuchon, ultimately from Latin scutum ("shield"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English escochon, from Anglo-Norman escuchon, from Vulgar Latin *scūtiō, scūtiōn-, from Latin scūtum, shield. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The fair fame of Harvard is the possession of every son and daughter of Massachusetts, and the least stain that mars her escutcheon is the sorrow of all.”
“To the left of the escutcheon was the figure of a woman, standing.”
“Camden society what the old church at Jamestown probably was, may be seen the tomb of a Tazewell, who died in 1706, on which is engraved the coat of arms of the family, -- a lion rampant, bearing a helmet with a vizor closed on his back; an escutcheon, which is evidently of Norman origin, and won by some daring feat of arms, and which could only have been held by one of the conquering race.”
Discourse of the Life and Character of the Hon. Littleton Waller Tazewell
“The Zornozas boast an escutcheon which is embellished with a band, a number of wolves, and a legend whose import I do not recall.”
“Victorian outcry against what was termed 'a blot 'on the already rather shady' escutcheon 'of Australia, the immigration was stopped in 1868.”
“Dorsetshire, of the latter period, is of stone, the upper part worked in plain oblong panels; and a kind of escutcheon within one of these bears the date 1592; the lower part or basement of this pulpit is circular in form.”
The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed.
“Holding out the word "government" as a kind of escutcheon to his people, it is Obama's message that his government is the ally not just of multicultural Democrats, as his opponents would have it, but the friend of all Americans.”
“Clack Row, "mentioned in the preceding extract from the minutes, and it is likely that there is some connection between the" escutcheon "ordered and his burial, i.e. it was, probably ordered for his coffin, he being" in extremis "at the time the”
“Heraldry — abatement, cadency, clarion, escutcheon, jessant-de-lys, rampant, talbot (I could go on for close to a thousand words as classical heraldry uses Norman French)”
“Her whiter-than-white teeth caused Biden boosters in the theater to recoil in horror at this blot on Joe's enamel escutcheon.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘escutcheon’.
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phrontistery - e
from phrontistery.info
eagre, earing, earwig, easement, eau-de-nil, ebberman, ebeneous, ?boulement, ebriection, ?brillade, ebrious, ebullioscope and 616 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Collected Words - List 2
I've been saving these words FOR YEARS. Now, I've found Wordie
gasconade, zaccheus, spoor, precentor, bombazine, otiose, khamsin, bruited, viva voce, whilom, lenitive, ebullition and 244 more...
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Jesse's random
bathos, dragoman, tessellated, escutcheon, eikon, mondaine, basilisk, ciborium, rubric, machicolation, jet, defalcation and 198 more...
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 155 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 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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shells
testudinals
testudines, turtle, testudine, testudo, tortoise, scallop, triton, calipash, daphnia, carapace, gryphite, phragmacone and 62 more...
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A Time of Gifts
lambent, gonfalon, ait, eyrie, haberdashery, belfry, capstan, spinney, barbican, hobnail, wharf, waterlogged and 64 more...
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Armor
Armet, helm, helmet, panoply, mail, Armour, shield, targe, scutcheon, escutcheon, ancile, buckler and 4 more...
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Vega's Logophile Dictionary
Words I've heard/read in use, words being learnt, words that I want to eventually use in everyday language, words that are high-brow and elitist and scholarly and obscure, words that display the wo...
parsimonious, torpor, recalcitrant, plebeian, vitriol, gumption, augur, aestival, celerity, diaphanous, farrago, nonpareil and 287 more...
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sep332's list
words I can't remember
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Notre Dame de Paris
From Notre Dame de Paris by good ole Victor Hugo. (Also called The Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
cuivres, diable, hawthorn, provost, epithalamium, affrighted, mendicants, vagrants, Styx, chimeras, coif, matagrabolise and 196 more...
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Mat8iou's interesting words
Words I've come across & want to remember.
bloviation, elginism, panegyric, infandous, boke, pangram, quine, pareto principle, panopticon, snib, escutcheon, bokeh and 129 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for escutcheon.

heypacksees Also, the medical term for the distribution of human pubic hair. Do try to resist the opportunities rife with low-brow humor this provides. Mar 6, 2012
ext11 Mentioned in "A Tale of Two Cities"! Jul 31, 2011
super-logos Do the bears of McCutcheon
have an escutcheon?
Sadly, no, said Brown Bear,
who slinked into his lair
to devise a great crest for himself.
A salmon in the left corner,
A paw in the right,
Fur and teeth spread all over,
To reveal ominous might.
Posted on the door
For all to see,
The crest of Brown Bear
will make a burglar flee.
But little do they know
that inside his dens
A sweet bear holds court
With all his winter friends.
Turkeys and ducks and sweet
little toads
Write poetry, and dance,
while snows coat the roads.
'Tis a fine place, this House of Bear.
Crest or no crest, it's great to be there.
(this assumes a male bear)
Aug 15, 2008
milosrdenstvi * GENERAL: Why do I sit here? To escape from the pirates' clutches, I described myself as an orphan; and, heaven help me, I am no orphan! I come here to humble myself before the tombs of my ancestors, and to implore their pardon for having brought dishonour on the family escutcheon.
FREDERIC: But you forget, sir, you only bought the property a year ago, and the stucco on your baronial castle is scarcely dry.
GENERAL: Frederic, in this chapel are ancestors: you cannot deny that. With the estate, I bought the chapel and its contents. I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know whose ancestors they are, and I shudder to think that their descendant by purchase (if I may so describe myself) should have brought disgrace upon what, I have no doubt, was an unstained escutcheon.
-- W.S. Gilbert, The Pirates of Penzance Aug 15, 2008
super-swany A blot upon your escutcheon Oct 21, 2007
chained_bear In heraldry, the shield or shield-shaped surface on which a coat of arms is depicted; also in wider sense, the shield with the armorial bearings; a sculptured or painted representation of this.
Usage: 1815 SCOTT Guy M. xli, The carved stone escutcheon of the ancient family...was hung diagonally beneath the helmet and crest. Feb 4, 2007