coat-armour Her.
(kəʊtˈɑːmə(r))
For forms see coat and armour n.
† 1. A vest of rich material embroidered with heraldic devices, worn as a distinction by knights over their armour, by heralds, etc.; = coat of arms 1. (See armour n. 10.) Obs.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 586 He..Askez erly hys armez, & alle were þay broȝt..Wyth ryche cote armure. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 236 Pursevauntes and heraudes..Hit weren alle; and every man Of hem..Had on him throwen a vesture Which that men clepe a cote-armure, Enbrowded wonderliche riche. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. lxxxviii. [lxxxiv.] 260 The heraulte..with his cote armure on his backe, with the armes of the duke of Lancastre. 1530 Palsgr. 209/1 Cote armour, cotte d'armes. 1639 Fuller Holy War iii. xviii. (1840) 146 The soldiers also bearing the badge of the cross on their coat-armour. |
† 2. The distinctive heraldic insignia borne by a gentleman (armiger); a shield, escutcheon; = coat of arms 2. Obs.
| 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xix. 188 What is hus conysaunce, quaþ ich, in hus cote-armure? 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Her. A j a, Here in thys booke folowyng is determyned the lynage of coote armuris. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 71 To haue..their cote Armours to be set above theyr tombes. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry i. ii. (1611) 7 The blazoning of the Coate-armours of gentlemen. 1625 tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. i. (1688) 48 To raze and deface the Epitaphs and Coat-armours of most noble Families. |
† 3. transf. One who bears coat-armour. Obs.
| 1415 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 126 Two thousand cot-armers..After her sorow thedere thei sowght. 1550 J. Coke Eng. & Fr. Herald (1877) §194 Viscountes, barons, knyghtes, esquiers, and cote armours. 1602 Carew Cornwall 63 b. |
4. (without pl.) Blazonry, ‘arms’.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Her. A ij b, Cote armure was made and figurid at the sege of troye. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. v. i. 234 Under an Emblematicall intention, we accept it in coat armour. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 104 In matters of coat-armour, precedency, and other distinctions of families. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xv. 188 The custom of bearing coat-armour as a sign of original or achieved gentility. |
† 5. = armour n. (senses 1, 2), coat of mail. rare.
| 1603 Ceremonies at Coron. Jas. I (1685) 6 Be thou unto him a Coat-Armour against his Enemies. |
Hence † coat-armoured a., furnished with coat-armour.
| 1594 Carew Tasso (1881) 68 Whats he coat-armoured? |