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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.

Colloquially, any paymaster or cashier. Purser's name (Naut.), a false name. [Slang]

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.

A portrait; a likeness. [Obs.] Whose fair retrait I in my shield do bear. Spenser.

Like a rock; as, the rocky orb of a shield. Milton.

A circular shield carried by foot soldiers.

A small circular shield, sometimes not more than a foot in diameter, used by soldiers in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

th covered with caoutchouc for excluding water or moisture. -- Rubber dam (Dentistry), a shield of thin sheet rubber clasped around a tooth to exclude saliva from the tooth.

The willow; willow twigs. [Poetic] Tennyson. And bend the pliant sallow to a shield. Fawkes. The sallow knows the basketmaker's thumb. Emerson.