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cuirass
5 dictionary results for: Cuirass
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
cui·rass       [kwi-ras] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.Also called corselet. defensive armor for the torso comprising a breastplate and backplate, originally made of leather.
2.either of the plates forming such armor.
3.any similar covering, as the protective armor of a ship.
4.Zoology. a hard shell or other covering forming an indurated defensive shield.
–verb (used with object)
5.to equip or cover with a cuirass.
[Origin: 1425–75; < F cuirasse < LL coriācea, n. use of fem. of coriāceus (adj.) leather, equiv. to L cori(um) leather + -āceus -aceous; r. late ME curas < MF curasse, var. of cuirasse]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
cui·rass       (kwĭ-rās')  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
    1. A piece of armor for protecting the breast and back.
    2. The breastplate alone.
  2. A defense or protection: "A carefully primped irony, that cuirass of art in the early Eighties, is necessary—a distance so affected as to constitute a hopeless impediment to feeling" (Robert Hughes).
  3. Zoology A protective covering of bony plates or scales.

tr.v.   cui·rassed, cui·rass·ing, cui·rass·es
To protect with a cuirass.


[Middle English curas, from Old French curasse, probably alteration (influenced by Old French cuir, leather) of Old Provençal coirassa, from Late Latin coriācea (vestis), leather (garment), feminine of coriāceus, from Latin corium, hide; see sker-1 in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
cuirass 
1464, from M.Fr. cuirasse, from L.L. coriacea vestis "garment of leather," from L. corium "leather, hide."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
cuirass

noun
medieval body armor that covers the chest and back 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.]

1. (a) A piece of defensive armor, covering the body from the neck to the girdle. (b) 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.

2. (Zo["o]l) An armor of bony plates, somewhat resembling a cuirass.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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