The Collaborative International Dictionary
Armorial \Ar*mo"ri*al\, a. [F. armorial, fr. armoiries arms, coats of arms, for armoieries, fr. OF. armoier to paint arms, coats of arms, fr. armes, fr. L. arma. See Arms, Armory.] Belonging to armor, or to the heraldic arms or escutcheon of a family.
Figures with armorial signs of race and birth.
--Wordsworth.
Armorial bearings. See Arms, 4.
Usage examples of "armorial bearings".
It was a large, darkly-panelled, stone-flagged room with enormous adze-cut smoke-blackened beams and walls behung with ancient and rusty suits of armour, ancient and rusty weapons of all kinds and scores of armorial bearings, some of which could have -been genuine.
But he remarks that there is this difference: the armorial bearings of Europe are frequently a proof only of the merits of the first who bore them, and are no certificate of the merits of his descendants.
Not a grand tomb, set up for some nobleman, with his armorial bearings carved on it and perhaps a stone figure or two, but a lesser tomb of the sort that is built above the ground, so that the corpse does not have to be lowered into the dampness and possible flooding from the nearby river.