mailed, a.
(meɪld)
[f. mail n.1 + -ed2.]
1. Covered with or composed of mail or plates of metal.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Sam. xvii. 5 And he was clothid with a maylid [Vulg. squamata] hawberioun. ― 1 Macc. vi. 35 A thousand men stoden niȝ in mailid to gidre hauberiownes [Vulg. in loricis concatenatis]. 1450 W. Lomner in Paston Lett. I. 125 Oon..toke awey his gown of russet, and his dobelette of velvet mayled. 1513 Douglas æneis ix. xi. 92 The dowbyll malyt traste hawbryk. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 85 A shirt mayled with gould. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 7/2 We muste consider, if it be a mayled doublete, how manye mayles are wantinge. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 170 The mailed glove [is] manfully hurled in his teeth. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 305 With his mailed gauntlet he brushed away a furtive tear. |
2. Armed with mail, mail-clad. Of a vessel: Iron-clad. mailed fist, (a threat of) armed force or superior might.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. i. 116 The mayled Mars shall on his Altar sit Vp to the eares in blood. 1607 ― Cor. i. iii. 38 His bloody brow With his mail'd hand, then wiping, forth he goes. 1773–83 Hoole Orl. Fur. xlvi. 1001 He..stands with point addrest To pierce the mailed side or plated brest. 1827 Keble Chr. Y. Adv. Sund., A crown'd monarch's mailèd breast. 1860 Tennent Story Guns iii. i. (1864) 229 None of the mailed gun-boats..were ready in time. 1863 Woolner My Beautiful Lady 137 When Norman William..with charge of mailèd horse and showers Of steel won England. 1897 Times 17 Dec. 7/1 [tr. Emp. Will. II of Germany] But should any one essay to detract from our just rights or to injure us, then up and at him with your mailed fist [G. fahre darein mit gepanzerter Faust]. 1898 19th Cent. Jan. 164 Japan is a foe who will not be terrified by the mailed fist of Germany. 1898 Review of Reviews Mar. 214 Prince Henry of the mailed fist has by this time reached his destination. 1920 M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism II. iii. i. 16 The first rude contact with the mailed fist brought him back to the sober realities of life. |
| fig. 1799 Campbell Pleas. Hope ii. 10 In self-adoring pride securely mail'd. 1850 Blackie æschylus II. 230 With constancy mailed for the fight. 1870 Bryant Iliad I. i. 9 Thou mailed in impudence [i. 149 ἀναιδείην έπιειµένε]. |
3. transf. of animals, etc.: Having a skin or protective covering resembling mail-armour.
mailed-cheeks, the family Sclerogenidæ of fishes.
| 1681 Grew Musæum 117 The Mailed-fish, Cataphractus Schonveldi. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 489 Centriscus, Lin. Back mailed with long scaly plates. 1834 M{supc}Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 195 Buccæ Loricatæ. The family of the Mailed-Cheeks. 1838 Swainson Nat. Hist. Fishes, etc. I. 330 The Loricarinæ or mailed cat-fish. 1839 Ibid. II. 21 The Holocentrinæ, or mailed-perches. 1854 Owen Skel. & Teeth 3 The ball-proof character of the skin of the largest of these mailed examples. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 290 The mailed and glittering beings that shoot along like animated beams of light. |
4. a. Of a hawk: Having mail or breast-feathers (of a specified colour).
| 1575 Turberv. Faulconrie 34 They are ordinarily of foure mayles, eyther blancke, russet, browne, or turtle maylde, and some pure white maylde. 1672 J. Josselyn New Eng. Rarities 11 The Osprey, which in this Country is white mail'd. 1683 Lond. Gaz. No. 1799/4 A large black Mayled, whole Feathered, and thorough mewed Falcon. |
† b. Speckled or spotted. Obs.
| 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Maillé, Perdrix maillée, a maylde, menild, or spotted Partridge. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Mailed, full of Specks, or speckled, as the Feathers of Hawks, Partridges, &c. or as the Furrs of some wild Beasts are. [So 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3); 1727 Bailey vol. II.] |