† 1. A vest of rich material embroidered with heraldic devices, worn as a distinction by knights over their armor, by heralds, etc.; = COAT OF ARMS 1. (See ARMOUR 10.) Obs.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 586. He … Askez erly hys armez, & alle were þay broȝt … Wyth ryche cote armure.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 236. Pursevauntes and heraudes … Hit weren alle; and every man Of hem … Had on him throwen a vesture Which that men clepe a cote-armure, Enbrowded wonderliche riche.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. lxxxviii. [lxxxiv.] 260. The heraulte … with his cote armure on his backe, with the armes of the duke of Lancastre.
1530. Palsgr., 209/1. Cote armour, cotte d’armes.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. xviii. (1840), 146. The soldiers also bearing the badge of the cross on their coat-armour.
† 2. The distinctive heraldic insignia borne by a gentleman (armiger); a shield, escutcheon; = COAT OF ARMS 2. Obs.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIX. 188. What is hus conysaunce, quaþ ich, in hus cote-armure?
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., A j a. Here in thys booke folowyng is determyned the lynage of coote armuris.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 71. To haue … their cote Armours to be set above theyr tombes.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, I. ii. (1611), 7. The blazoning of the Coate-armours of gentlemen.
1625. trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., I. (1688), 48. To raze and deface the Epitaphs and Coat-armours of most noble Families.
† 3. transf. One who bears coat-armor. Obs.
1415. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 126. Two thousand cot-armers … After her sorow thedere thei sowght.
1550. J. Coke, Eng. & Fr. Herald (1877), § 194. Viscountes, barons, knyghtes, esquiers, and cote armours.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 64.
4. (without pl.) Blazonry, ‘arms.’
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., A ij b. Cote armure was made and figurid at the sege of troye.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., V. i. 234. Under an Emblematicall intention, we accept it in coat armour.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 104. In matters of coat-armour, precedency, and other distinctions of families.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xv. 188. The custom of bearing coat-armour as a sign of original or achieved gentility.
† 5. = ARMOUR (senses 1, 2), coat of mail. rare.
1603. Ceremonies at Coronat. Jas. I. (1685), 6. Be thou unto him a Coat-Armour against his Enemies.
Hence † Coat-armo(u)red a., furnished with coat-armor.
1594. Carew, Tasso (1881), 68. Whats he coat-armoured?
