plaquet

Definitions

noun archaic A strong metal plate used to reinforce the lower part of the breastplate in a suit of plate armor. A placard.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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"Well, what is it, Joe?" asked my mistress without troubling herself to close the open plaquet through which two still plump and pinky breasts unwinkingly peered.

The Story of a Slave. A Realistic Revelation of a Social Relation of Slave Times--Hitherto Unwritten--From the Pen of One Who Has Felt Both the Lash and the Caress of a Mistress No Author 1894
They would go to the utmost borders of honesty for a couronne de Brabant, or a demi-couronne, or a double escalin, or a single escalin, or a plaquet, or a livre, or a sous, or a liard, or for any the vilest denomination of their absurd coin, yet I do not believe they would go beyond the bounds of honesty with any but an English Milor: they are privileged dupes.

The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1 Maria Edgeworth 1808
Their custom of preparing for baptism was as follows: the Indian women raised the children to the age of three, placing for the boys a small white plaquet, fastened to the head in the hair of the tonsure; the girls wore a thin cord tied very low about the waist, to which was attached a small shell over the private parts; to remove these two things was regarded among them as a sin and disgraceful, until the time of the baptism, which was given between the ages of three and twelve; until this ceremony was received they did not marry.

KSL / U.S. / National 2009