arms-bearer

Noun

arms-bearer (plural arms-bearers)

1. One who carries weapons for another.
   • As for women, only Venus, stripped of her femininity as arms-bearer for Caesar, and the virginal goddess Vesta are present (4.1.46 and 4.1.21).2005, Ronnie Ancona, Ellen Greene, Gendered Dynamics in Latin Love Poetry, →ISBN, page 316
   • And the men of the outpost called to Jonathan and his arms-bearer: "Come on up to us, and we will show you a thing! "2009, Hillel I. Millgram, The Invention of Monotheist Ethics - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 128
2. An armed fighter, such as a soldier or knight; one who carries and uses a weapon, as opposed to a member of the support personnel.
   • Lamenting the fact that "scarcely an inch of the page of history has been appropriated" to the memory of the black arms-bearers of the Revolutionary War, Henry Highland Garnet sought to redress the balance in an address before the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840.1988, Benjamin Quarles, Black mosaic: essays in Afro-American history and historiography
   • An important rule of heraldry (often overlooked by makers of historical dramas) is that only the arms-bearer could wear or use his own arms and fly his own banner and standard - his retainers and followers could only use his livery colours and his badge or badges on pennons and flags.1990, William G. Crampton, The Complete Guide to Flags, page 15