cataphracts

Noun (1)

cataphract (plural cataphracts)

1. (historical) Defensive armour covering the entire body of a soldier and often the soldier's horse as well, especially the linked mail or scale armour of some eastern nations.
   • Those fighting before the standards, around the standards and (otherwise) in the front line were called principes [i.e. the centurions and the other under-officers]. This was the heavy armament, which had helmets, cataphracts, greaves, shields, large swords called spathae, and other smaller swords...1996, Vegetius [i.e., Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus], “How the Lines of the Legions are Drawn Up”, in N. P. Milner, transl., Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science […] (Translated Texts for...
2. (broadly, obsolete) An outer covering of some fish resembling armour or plate.

Noun (2)

cataphract (plural cataphracts)

1. (historical) A soldier (especially a horseman) covered with a cataphract (etymology 1, sense 1).
   • He who lookes you in the face, ſaith he ſees you, though the reſt of your bodie be within your cloathes, and if you, being an ὁωλομάχος a cataphract in your proteſtantiſh πανοπλία [panoplía, suit of armour] should for fear pull downe your beuer before you come into the liſt, your Aduerſarie for all...1635, L. I. [pseudonym; John Lechmere], “The Third Argument was about the Killing Letter; out of Origen, […]”, in The Relection of a Conference Tovching the Reall Presence. Or A Bachelovrs Censvre of...
2. A galley with the upper tier of rowers shielded.

See all 5 meanings of cataphract