cuirass

cui·rass   (kwĭ-rās')    n.   A piece of armor for protecting the breast and back. The breastplate alone. 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). 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.]

cuirass 

Main Entry: cui·rass
Pronunciation: kwi-'ras, kyu-
Function: noun
1 : a plaster cast for the trunk and neck
2 : arespirator that covers the chest or the chest and abdomen and provides artificial respiration by means of an electric pump

cuirass

body armour that protects the torso of the wearer above the waist or hips. Originally it was a thick leather garment covering the body from neck to waist, consisting of a breastplate and a backpiece fastened together with straps and buckles and a gorget, a collar protecting the throat. In Homeric and Hellenistic times, it was made of bronze. Cuirasses of leather as well as iron were worn by officers in the armies of the Roman Empire. Later made of steel, the cuirass was forerunner to the body armour worn to deflect bullets.

Learn more about cuirass with a free trial on Britannica.com.