Search the Dictionary

ving bulk and weight ot substance; ponderous; bulky and heavy; weight; heavy; as, a massy shield; a massy rock. Your swords are now too massy for your strengths, And will not be uplifted. Shak. Yawning rocks in massy fragments fly. Pope.

To supply with food. [Obs.] Tusser. His shield well lined, his horses meated well. Chapman.

A soft cover of cylindrical form, usually of fur, worn by women to shield the hands from cold.

him that ordereth his conversation aright. Ps. 1. 23. Warriors old with ordered spear and shield. Milton.

A bearing, in the form of a fillet, round the shield, within, but at some distance from, the border.

A shield of basket work formerly used by archers as a shelter from the enemy's missiles.

A large shield covering the whole body, carried by a pavisor, who sometimes screened also an archer with it. [Written also pavais, pavese, and pavesse.] Fairholt.

A small shield, especially one of an approximately elliptic form, or crescent-shaped.

Shield-shaped; scutiform; (Bot.) having the stem or support attached to the lower surface, instead of at the base or margin; -- said of a leaf or other organ. -- Pel"tate*ly, adv.

Shieldlike, with the outline nearly circular; peltate. Henslow.

A pointed head or spike; esp., one in the center of a shield or target. Beau. & Fl.

The ventral shield or shell of tortoises and turtles. See Testudinata.

Very heavy; weighty; as, a ponderous shield; a ponderous load; the ponderous elephant. The sepulcher . . . Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws. Shak.

To adorn with pictures. [R.] Spear and helmets thronged, and shields Various with boastful arguments potrayed. Milton.

To cover or shield from danger or injury; to defend; to guard; to preserve in safety; as, a father protects his children. The gods of Greece protect you! Shak.

That which protects or preserves from injury; a defense; a shield; a refuge. Let them rise up . . . and be your protection. Deut. xxxii. 38.

One who, or that which, defends or shields from injury, evil, oppression, etc.; a defender; a guardian; a patron. For the world's protector shall be known. Waller.

The division of a shield containing different coats of arms into four or more compartments.

quarters, or quarterings; as, to bear arms quarterly; in four or more parts; -- said of a shield thus divided by lines drawn through it at right angles.

To reverse. [Obs.] Whose shield he bears renverst. Spenser.