[a. L. armiger bearing arms, an armor-bearer; in med.L. a squire.] An esquire; orig. one who attended a knight to bear his shield, etc.; in later usage, one entitled to bear heraldic arms.
[1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. i. 10. A Gentleman borne who writes himselfe Armigero.]
1762. H. Walpole, Vertues Anecd. Paint. (1786), V. 111. Carew Reynell, armiger.
c. 1840. De Quincey, Autobiog. Sk., ii. Wks. II. 92. Entitled to proclaim himself an Armiger; which is the newest mode of saying that one is privileged to bear arms in a sense intelligible only to the Heralds College.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, xiii. 74. He could buy up half the county armigers.