Crossword clues for cuirassier
cuirassier
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cuirassier \Cui`ras*sier"\ (kw?`r?s-s?r"), n. [F. cuirassier.
See Curass.] (Mil.)
A soldier armed with a cuirass; especially, a soldier of the
heaviest cavalry, wearing a cuirass only when in full dress.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster Webster 1913 Suppl.] ||
Wiktionary
n. (context historical English) A cavalry soldier equipped with a cuirass (armor).
WordNet
n. a cavalryman equipped with a cuirass
Wikipedia
Cuirassiers (, from French cuirassier, ) were cavalry equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. This French term means "one with a cuirass" (cuirasse), the breastplate armour which they wore. The first cuirassiers were produced as a result of armoured cavalry, such as the man-at-arms and demi-lancer, discarding their lances and adopting the use of pistols as their primary weapon. In the later 17th century, the cuirassier lost his limb armour and subsequently employed only the cuirass (breastplate and backplate), and sometimes a helmet. By this time, the sword was the primary weapon of the cuirassier, pistols being relegated to a secondary function.
Cuirassiers achieved increased prominence during the Napoleonic Wars and were last fielded in the opening stages of World War I. Cuirassiers continue to be employed as ceremonial troops by a number of countries.
Usage examples of "cuirassier".
Torunnan cuirassiers, perhaps three hundred of them, and several thousand sword-and-buckler men and arquebusiers intermingled, struggling against immense odds to extend their flanks.
It was entirely surrounded by soldiers, the military commander of Rome on the right, the commander of the Carabineers on the left, and the Cuirassiers, riding two deep, before and behind, so that the King and Queen were scarcely visible to the cheering crowd.
His cuirassiers are described as so many massy statues of steel, glittering with their scaly armor, and breaking with their ponderous lances the firm array of the Gallic legions.
But his ranks were instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light horse and of light infantry, and he had the mortification of beholding the flight of six hundred of his most renowned cuirassiers.
Pappenheim and his dreaded Black Cuirassiers had pursued the retreating Austrians for miles, slaughtering pitilessly.
The Cuirassiers wore steel breastplates, helmets and backplates, and rode the heaviest horses of all the French cavalry.
Every cavalry uniform in the Empire was there: Dragoons, Carabiniers, Hussars, Chasseurs, all forming their long lines of attack behind the Lancers and Cuirassiers.
Dragoons reached the town first, followed by Cuirassiers and Red Lancers.
The Cuirassiers were tumbled down to the crushed rye as the musket volleys settled into their killing rhythm.
Dying horses quivered on the compacted rye, while wounded Cuirassiers struggled to unburden themselves of helmets and armour before limping away.
The Duke had his glass trained on the front line of cavalry that was composed of the heavy Cuirassiers in their steel armour.
Behind the Cuirassiers were the light horsemen with their lances and sabres.
Ten Cuirassiers went down in a maelstrom of blood, steel and dying horses, but there were more Cuirassiers on either flank and a rage of Lancers and Hussars were storming in behind the armoured vanguard.
Some of the naked men ran to the crest to see that a nine-pounder had slammed a cannon-ball into a troop of French Cuirassiers who had been crossing the valley floor.
Worse, the Cuirassiers who had just destroyed the Red Germans now rode west of the high road to escape the cannon-fire and threatened to attack the thin British line.