lambrequin

Noun

lambrequin (plural lambrequins)

1. (historical) A scarf or other piece of material used as a covering for a helmet.
   • 'Twere as easy to woo the snow-dame that we shaped last winter in our castle yard. I did but ask her yesternight for her green veil, that I might bear it as a token or lambrequin upon my helm.1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The White Company, New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC
   • A dead man (he had, I think, been suffocated with a lambrequin, there being those who practice that art) lay at the corner.1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XVI, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 146
2. A heraldic representation of such an item, often used as drapery around a coat of arms.

   Synonyms:

   mantling

3. (US) A short decorative drapery for a shelf edge or for the top of a window casing.
   • Lambrequins dependent from gaudy boxings of beaten tin, gilded.1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC
   • […]the mirror over the mantel rested on a fringed mantel-cover of green reps, and heavy curtains of that stuff hung from gilt lambrequin frames at the window; […].1885, William Dean Howells, chapter XVI, in The Rise of Silas Lapham

   Synonyms:

   valance

4. A decorative architectural element placed along the eaves of a roof, the edges of an overhang, etc.
5. A border pattern with draped effect.