passguard
passguard noun: an L-shaped piece of armor worn over one arm (typically the left arm), which generally kept it in a bent position and protected it during jousts.
Noun
passguard (plural passguards)
- An L-shaped piece of armor worn over one arm (typically the left arm), which generally kept it in a bent position and protected it during jousts.
- Upon a like horse, one armour cap-a-pe, engraven with a ragged staffe, made for the Earl of Leicester, a mainguard, passguard, manifare and gauntlet; the horse's furniture being a chafron, crinet, and breastplate of the ...1896, Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Eleventh Report: Appendix. The manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth, page 5
- […] fastened to it by a clasp at the back and a linch pin in front; the passguard, or elbow-piece; and the bridle-gauntlet.1902, Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, Proceedings of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, page 156
- Synonyms:
- pasguard
- A ridge or an additional plate on a shoulder piece, to turn the blow of a weapon away from the neck or joint of the armor.
- -Cuirass rounded and projecting1846, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society (LINCOLN), The first (second, fourth-sixth) report of the Lincolnshire Society for the Encouragement of Ecclesiastical Architecture, page 38
- Epaulières re-appear on the shoulders, but pauldrons are also used, with the inner parts turned up: these are called passguards. The coutes are larger than we often have them at this period. […]1894, David Herbert Somerset Cranage, An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire
- Synonyms:
- neck guard, passegarde, garde-collet, haute piece, pikeguard, swordbreaker
Examples of passguard in a sentence
- The passguard is much larger than that worn in jousting at the tilt, reaching nearly to the left shoulder.2013, R. Coltman Clephan, The Medieval Tournament, Courier Corporation, →ISBN:
- The helmet bears the crest an elephant's head […] The epaulières have ridges called passguards to protect the neck, and upon the breast ...1886, The Midland Naturalist: Journal of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies with which is Incorporated the Entire Transactions...
Synonyms of passguard
Forms of passguard
| plural | passguards |
|---|
Origin of passguard
From French passe-garde, used with the meaning "armor projecting up from a shoulder-piece" since a least the 1800s. It has been suggested that the application of the term (in both English and French) to neck guards is, however, an error, and that the original meaning was "elbow armor".
Questions about passguard
- What does passguard mean?
- Passguard means an L-shaped piece of armor worn over one arm (typically the left arm), which generally kept it in a bent position and protected it during jousts.
- How do you use passguard in a sentence?
- The passguard is much larger than that worn in jousting at the tilt, reaching nearly to the left shoulder.
- What part of speech is passguard?
- Passguard is a noun.
- What is the plural of passguard?
- The plural of passguard is passguards.
Words near passguard in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: passguard (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “passguard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/passguard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.