Crossword clues for cuirass
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cuirass \Cui*rass"\ (kw[-e]*r[.a]s", or kw[=e]"r[a^]s; 277), n.; pl. Cuirasses(-[e^]z). [F.cuirasse, orig., a breastplate of leather, for OF. cuir['e]e, cuirie influenced by It. corazza, or Sp. coraza, fr. an assumed LL. coriacea, fr. L. coriaceus, adj., of leather, fr. corium leather, hide; akin to Gr. cho`rion intestinal membrane, OSlav. skora hide, Lith. skura hide, leather. Cf. Coriaceous.]
A piece of defensive armor, covering the body from the neck to the girdle.
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The breastplate taken by itself.
Note: The cuirass covered the body before and behind. It consisted of two parts, a breast- and backpiece of iron fastened together by means of straps and buckles or other like contrivances. It was originally, as the name imports, made of leather, but afterward of metal.
--Grose.
(Zo["o]l) An armor of bony plates, somewhat resembling a cuirass.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"armor for the chest and back," mid-15c., from Middle French cuirasse (15c.), from Late Latin coriacea vestis "garment of leather," from Latin corium "leather, hide" (see corium). Cognate with Italian corazza, Spanish coraza, Portuguese couraça.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A piece of defensive armor, covering the body from the neck to the girdle. 2 The breastplate taken by itself.
WordNet
n. medieval body armor that covers the chest and back
Wikipedia
A cuirass (; , ) is a piece of armour, formed of a single or multiple pieces of metal or other rigid material which covers the front of the torso. In a suit of armour, the cuirass was generally connected to a back piece. Cuirass could also refer to the complete torso-protecting armour.
Usage examples of "cuirass".
I saw the makings of a great adventurer in him, but I thought his luxury would prove the weak point in his cuirass.
A hundred and fifty men, Fustenus, all cuirassed, helmeted and heavily armed.
As for himself, though he had been fitted out in lobster-tail helmet, leather buff-coat and steel cuirass, vambraces, cuishes and gauntlets, and had a broadswordsomewhat altereddepending from a wide leather baldric, the clothing beneath was anachronistichis old GI coveralls and a handsome pair of hand-tooled Western boots.
There were servants in the room too, young men and women in tunics and tabards of gorgeous watered silks, or in fantastic uniforms of red leather kilts, golden cuirasses inlaid with intricate designs of black mother-of-pearl and plumed helmets that almost doubled their height, armed with ornately decorated gisarmes, pole-axes and sarissas which they held grounded before them.
Two or three went in loricated jerkins, one in a cuirass of boiled leather, another in an old, threadbare brigandine.
He wore a glistening cuirass of enameled metal, a sumptuous robe falling in elaborate folds almost to the floor, edged with orphreys embroidered in gold thread.
His stately figure, almost as tall and stout as that of King Edward, was always clad with some mark of the warrior, in polished steel inlaid with gold, sometimes as a placcard, sometimes as a cuirass which sparkled beneath a surcoat.
Merric informed Tobe, lifting the cuirass over his head and shoulders.
Wide-framed and sturdy, he was attired in a well-worn cuirass, simple steel and oiled leather straps.
After some fumbling, he got rid of the brassets on his forearms and their attached gauntlets, and then the cuirass with its little chain sleeves.
Guards were running through the garden, all converging toward the palace, where the clamor momentarily grew louder-tall men in burnished cuirasses and crested helmets of polished bronze.
They could hear now the shouts of the combatants without, the loud orders given by the leaders on the walls, the crack, as the stones hurled by the mangonels struck the walls, and the ring of steel as the arrows struck against steel cap and cuirass.
Sailor-fashion, he had no armor on but a light morion and a cuirass, so he was not too much encumbered to prevent his springing to his legs instantly, and setting to work, cutting and foining right and left at every sound, for sight there was none.
All wore gorgeous puffed royal-blue sleeves, blue pantaloons, bronze cuirasses, and morions of the Zazesspurian civic guard.
Thus speaks pride, and once that cuirass has been buckled on, it glitters with the refulgent light of day.