armour
/ˈɑːmə
/(US armor)
noun [mass noun]
1The metal coverings formerly worn to protect the body in battle: knights in armour a suit of armour...
- He was dressed like a centurion, with titanium armor protecting his every body part.
- For example, during the Middle Ages in Europe, knights dressed in suits of armor and rode into battle on powerful horses.
- In it, I saw myself dressed in chain mail armor, riding into battle.
2 (also armour plate) The tough metal layer covering a military vehicle or ship to defend it from attack.Use of these copper-free alloys has increased in recent years and now includes automotive applications, structural members and armor plate for military vehicles, and components of other transportation equipment....
- The plane was lightened a bit by removal of armor plate and some military systems but the airframe was essentially stock.
- The plant is the largest producer of armor plate for the U.S. military.
2.1Military vehicles collectively: infantry, armour, and logistic units...
- Syrian's armored forces moved on the Golan Plateau to be met by Israeli armor and mechanized infantry brigades.
- This excludes women from employment in armour, artillery, infantry and combat engineer units/positions.
- An armor or infantry task force traditionally performs these roles with engineers attached as the reduction element.
3The protective layer or shell of some animals and plants.The oddly jointed pectoral fin armor is a memorable feature of the placoderms, especially Antiarchs....
- The dorsal armor may be a single plate, or may be comprised of as many as nine smaller plates.
- Such hairs serve as a protective armor for plants because they secrete polyol ester chemicals that are deadly to certain insect pests.
4A person’s emotional, social, or other defences: his armour of self-confidence...
- Everyone enters adulthood with a whole lot of emotional armour and they erect walls about them - suspicious and very guarded.
- And all my armour and resources and defences have stripped away, leaving me soft and vulnerable, and gently bleeding.
- Beneath the social armour of her Galliano jacket, Gucci trousers and Manolos, her beauty is as fragile as porcelain.
verb [with object]
Provide (someone) with emotional, social, or other defences: the knowledge armoured him against her...
- I survived only by mentally armoring myself by humming tunes and sketches from the Muppets to myself.
- We'd barely unpacked the tree when a call came through and before I could blink, they were all armouring themselves up and heading out the door.
- We learn the art and power of no protection - a spiritual power, not an conquest won through armoring ourselves against pain, or against an enemy.
Derivatives
armour-plated
/ adjective ...- Along the same highway later on Tuesday, police found five more bodies in a Lincoln Navigator truck which had apparently been armor-plated or bulletproofed, and two more bodies just a few yards further down the highway.
- Despite an unprecedented policing operation the US president is reportedly bringing in excess of 100 secret service agents to protect him, as well as his very own armour-plated Cadillac DeVille.
- Heemeyer, who lost two bitter disputes with town officials, smashed the armour-plated bulldozer into the town hall, a former mayor's home and at least five other buildings before the machine ground to a halt in the wreckage of a warehouse.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French armure, from Latin armatura, from armare 'to arm' (see arm2).