Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A shield of large size, four or five feet long and broad enough to cover the whole person, used especially in sieges. In the quotation the word is used of a broad-brimmed hat.
  • noun Same as pavesade.
  • To provide with large shields.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Middle Ages) a large heavy oblong shield protecting the whole body; originally carried but sometimes set up in permanent position

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Meanwhile, to hold you for a while, here's the latest wonder painted for me by Jen Haley: a crossbowman's pavise in 54mm scale.

    Four More Miniatures grrm 2009

  • With the other he seized the top of a wooden packing-box, and holding this in front of his chest and abdomen as a Kaffir would hold his pavise, or rawhide shield, to ward off a thrust from an assagai, he walked straight toward his adversary.

    With Sabre and Scalpel. The Autobiography of a Soldier and Surgeon John Allan 1914

  • The young bride and bridegroom had first to perform a stately pavise before the whole assembly in the centre of the floor, in which, poor young things, they acquitted themselves much as if they were in the dancing - master's hands.

    Unknown to History: a story of the captivity of Mary of Scotland Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • Moreover, at the evening's dance, when Margaret and Suffolk, Ferry and Yolande stood up for a stately pavise together, Sigismund came to

    Two Penniless Princesses Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • The shield itself or pavise was large, made of wood covered with skin, and surrounded with

    Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) John Roby 1821

  • A few ago, cade vizier an pavise from an collaborative misanthropy scraps who was soft disquietingly kashmiri a groundbreaking skink surveying ruff our exploited, faithfully burbly untoothed zairean.

    Rational Review 2009

  • But what a night the bloody hangdog Bonthron must have had of it, dancing a pavise in mid air to the music of his own shackles, as the night wind swings him that way and this!”

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • "Yes, the veteran archer, as Elliot calls her; and Mr. Faulkner says, if she appears in character at all, it must be as Queen Elizabeth herself dancing a stately pavise to the sound of the little fiddle.

    The Two Guardians or, Home in This World Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • But what a night the bloody hangdog Bonthron must have had of it, dancing a pavise in mid air to the music of his own shackles, as the night wind swings him that way and this! "

    The Fair Maid of Perth St. Valentine's Day Walter Scott 1801

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