codpiece

Noun

codpiece (plural codpieces)

1. (historical) A part of male dress in the 15th and 16th centuries, worn in front of the breeches to cover the male genitals.
   • , Act III, Scene III, line 130.
     Borachio: Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is, how giddily ’a turns about all the hot-bloods between fourteen and five-and-thirty, sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh’s soldiers in the reechy painting, sometime like god Bel’s priests in...
   • Once Francis lifts her hand. She pulls back, half-resisting, and for one moment it seems he intends to lay her little fingers upon his unspeakable codpiece.2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 408
2. A conspicuous protection for the male genitals in a suit of plate armor.
   • On some suits were screwed large iron cod-pieces; these, according to tradition, were intended to prevent the ill consequences of those violent shocks received in charging, either in battle, or at a tournament. Same say, they were meant to contain sponges for receiving the water of knights, who in...1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 21