tonlet

Noun

tonlet (plural tonlets)

1. (historical) A long armoured skirt, designed for combat on foot.
   • Accordingly, the Greenwich armoury hurriedly prepared a somewhat more conventional suit of foot combat armour made from existing pieces but incorporating newly made symmetrical pauldrons and a tonlet.2014, Glenn Richardson, The Field of Cloth of Gold, Yale University Press, →ISBN
   • On some the buttocks and groin are also fully encased in steel; while, on others, these same parts are protected by a tonlet, a deep steel skirt that widens downward to facilitate leg movement (see cat. 37).2019, Pierre Terjanian, Andrea Bayer, et al., The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 96
2. (historical) One of the plates which make up such a skirt.
   • Soon after this the six or eight "tonlets" grow fewer, being continued on the lower edge by the so-called tuilles, small plates strapped to the tonlets and swinging with the movement of the legs.1926, Hugh Chisholm, James Louis Garvin, The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature & General Information. 13th Ed., Being Volumes One to Twenty-eight of the Latest...
   • The steel tonlets are rigid, not overlapping and movable.2013, Wolfgang Bruhn, Max Tilke, A Pictorial History of Costume From Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century: With Over 1900 Illustrated Costumes, Including 1000 in Full Color, Courier Corporation...