passage of arms
passage of arms noun: a chivalric feat of arms involving the forcing of a passage protected by a knight or a group of knights.
Noun
passage of arms (plural passages of arms)
- A chivalric feat of arms involving the forcing of a passage protected by a knight or a group of knights.
- Any feat of arms, especially when used to display the prowess of the participants.
- A fight; (figuratively), an argument or verbal altercation.
- [S]he is the high standard of comparison among the neighbouring wives […], who in any domestic passages of arms habitually call upon their husbands to look at the difference between their position and Mrs. Snagsby’s[…].1852, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in Bleak House
- The lieutenant in charge of the traffic is a rude little bully, and Antonio has a passage at arms with him.1944, Iris Origo, War in Val d'Orcia, Pushkin Press, published 2017, page 259
Forms of passage of arms
| plural | passages of arms |
|---|---|
| alternative form | passage at arms |
Origin of passage of arms
From French.
Questions about passage of arms
- What does passage of arms mean?
- Passage of arms means a chivalric feat of arms involving the forcing of a passage protected by a knight or a group of knights.
- What part of speech is passage of arms?
- Passage of arms is a noun.
- What is the plural of passage of arms?
- The plural of passage of arms is passages of arms.
Words near passage of arms in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: passage of arms (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “passage of arms.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/passage_of_arms. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.