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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
balaclava
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
wear
▪ The offender entered the premises wearing a balaclava and told the sub-postmaster to open the safe.
▪ He was wearing a balaclava so all I could see was his eyes.
▪ He was wearing a balaclava and dark clothing.
▪ He was grabbed by a man wearing a black balaclava and pulled to the ground.
▪ The family's ordeal began when the men burst into their Colchester bungalow, wearing balaclavas and brandishing sawn-off shotguns.
▪ The three men, wearing balaclavas, reversed the Ford Sierra, which had been stolen from Huntington, through the doors.
▪ He was wearing a red ski balaclava, a dark cotton jacket and tracksuit bottoms.
▪ Elstob was brandishing a pick axe handle and both men were wearing balaclavas.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A third man stood there; black tracksuit without insignia, balaclava mask covering the head.
▪ Exhaled breath freezes wherever it touches, and balaclavas, scarves, beards and eyelashes become frosted.
▪ He was wearing a balaclava so all I could see was his eyes.
▪ Instead, we played some strange game that culminated in cavorting naked in the snow except for boots, underpants and balaclavas.
▪ Police are tonight examining a balaclava which was found near the scene.
▪ The girl had a black balaclava over her head, and her hands were handcuffed in front of her.
▪ The offender entered the premises wearing a balaclava and told the sub-postmaster to open the safe.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
balaclava

balaclava \balaclava\ n. close-fitting and woolen and covers all of the head but the face.

Syn: balaclava helmet.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
balaclava

"woolen head covering," especially worn by soldiers, evidently named for village near Sebastopol, Russia, site of a battle Oct. 25, 1854, in the Crimean War. But the term (originally Balaclava helmet) does not appear before 1881 and seems to have come into widespread use in the Boer War. The British troops suffered from the cold in the Crimean War, and the usage might be a remembrance of that conflict. The town name (Balaklava) often is said to be from Turkish, but is perhaps folk-etymologized from a Greek original Palakion.

Wiktionary
balaclava

n. 1 A warm cap shielding the neck and head, often made out of wool. 2 (context chiefly Canada English) A ski mask with holes for the eyes and, sometimes, the nose and mouth, which may be rolled up and worn like a toque or pulled over the face for greater protection.

WordNet
balaclava

n. a cap that is close-fitting and woolen and covers all of the head but the face [syn: balaclava helmet]

Wikipedia
Balaclava (clothing)

A balaclava, also known as a balaclava helmet or ski mask, is a form of cloth headgear designed to expose only part of the face. Depending on style and how it is worn, only the eyes, mouth and nose, or just the front of the face are unprotected. Versions with a full face opening may be rolled into a hat to cover the crown of the head or folded down as a collar around the neck.

The name comes from their use at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War, referring to a town near Sevastopol in Crimea.

Balaclava

Balaclava or Balaklava may refer to:

Balaclava (film)

Balaclava is a 1928 British silent war film directed by Maurice Elvey and Milton Rosmer and starring Cyril McLaglen, Benita Hume, Alf Goddard, Harold Huth, and Wally Patch. A British army officer is cashiered, and re-enlists as Private to take part in the Crimean War and succeeds in capturing a top Russian spy. The film climaxes with the Charge of the Light Brigade. It was made by Gainsborough Pictures with David Lean working as a production assistant.

Usage examples of "balaclava".

Nearby was a scattered settlement of houses outside which stood small, dark-skinned Quechua Indians dressed in ponchos, balaclavas and colourful woollen hats.

The same brutal quality, the same quick ferocity, the same unmerciful eyes looking out of the same balaclavas.

They wore balaclavas, but I saw their dark un-Russian eyes very clearly.

The sheer animal fury swept into the room like an emotional volcano, and the half concealing balaclavas only seemed to intensify the horrendous impact.

I jumped off the sofa and laid into both of them with the chair with a fury fed by theirs, and Stephen picked up one of the vodka bottles and slammed it at one of the eye-slits of the balaclavas.

Muffled to the ears and with balaclavas and hoods pulled low over their foreheads, they were so swaddled in layers of jerseys, trousers and coats that they were barely able to waddle: given a couple of white fur coats they would have resembled nothing so much as a pair of polar bears, that had given up on their diet years ago.

When he was finished, Lieutenant Ulbricht was as immune to the weather as it was possible for anyone to be: two balaclavas and a tightly strung duffel hood made sure of that.

Handing the sextant to Jamieson, he quickly removed Ulbricht's duffel hood, balaclavas and goggles.

Though it would have helped their cover if they could have gotten Harvath and Alexandra into the Spetsnaz uniforms with their black balaclavas and pretend that Raisa was helping guide them around the ship, there was no time for that.

The men in balaclavas were a studentdarts team with the arrows and a small silver trophy toprove it.

Before his comrades could react, four night-clad figures, torsos bulky with unfamiliar gear, faces painted black and heads shrouded by balaclavas and the insect-glitter of night-vision goggles, materialized out of the shadows and opened fire.

They wore the SEALs' usual mix of headgear floppy boonie hats, woolen balaclavas, or a dark green scarf folded into a triangle and worn over the head like a bandana.

In addition to the rummage sales, every Tuesday afternoon her group knitted for the troops, in the drawing room—washcloths for the beginners, scarves for the intermediates, balaclavas and gloves for the experts.

Those with criminal convictions and the weirdoes who turned up equipped with black balaclavas or armed with knives were shown the gate.