gorget

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A piece of armor protecting the throat.
2. n. An ornamental collar.
3. n. The scarflike part of a wimple covering the neck and shoulders.
4. n. A band or patch of distinctive color on the throat of an animal, especially an area of brightly colored feathers on the throat of a bird.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A piece of armor protecting the throat and sometimes the upper part of the breast. When of chain-mail it usually formed part of the camail, and such a mail gorget remained in use even after the adoption of the breastplate of hammered steel. The plate gorget forms a part of the plastron in the armor of the fifteenth century. The latest form was the hausse-col. In later days it dwindled in size till it became the small badge of an officer on duty.
2. n. A variety of wimple in use in the fourteenth century. It was worn very tight and close.
3. n. An ornamental neck-band having a considerable breadth, especially in front.
4. n. In ornithology, a throat-patch in any way distinguished by the color or texture of the feathers. Also gorgelet.
5. n. In surgery, a grooved instrument used in operations for anal fistula and in lithotomy. It serves as a guide, and in some instances is furnished with a blade for cutting. Also gorgeret.
6. n. In archaeology, an object of stone or shell, flat, or convex on one side and concave on the other, and sometimes provided with perforations. Stone gorgets may have been used for a variety of purposes—as bracers, as supports for ornaments, as badges, etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. historical A piece of armour for the throat.
2. n. historical A type of women's clothing covering the neck and breast; a wimple.
3. n. An ornament for the neck; a necklace, ornamental collar, torque etc.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A piece of armor, whether of chain mail or of plate, defending the throat and upper part of the breast, and forming a part of the double breastplate of the 14th century.
2. n. A piece of plate armor covering the same parts and worn over the buff coat in the 17th century, and without other steel armor.
3. n. A small ornamental plate, usually crescent-shaped, and of gilded copper, formerly hung around the neck of officers in full uniform in some modern armies.
4. n. obsolete A ruff worn by women.
5. n. A cutting instrument used in lithotomy.
6. n. A grooved instrunent used in performing various operations; -- called also blunt gorget.
7. n. (Zoöl.) A crescent-shaped, colored patch on the neck of a bird or mammal.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. armor plate that protects the neck