[L.; = bracelet, hoop; f. armus shoulder.]
1. A bracelet; now esp. in Archæology.
1706. Phillips, Armilla, a Bracelet or Jewel worn on the Arm or Wrist.
1721. in Bailey.
1791–1824. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1866), 293/1. They had on their left arm, an armilla, an iron ring.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 364. The wearing of the Armilla, or bracelet, as an ornament, is of very high antiquity.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. iii. 81. An armilla or ring of cannal coal.
1872. Wright, Uricon., vii. 284. Bronze armillæ … of large dimensions.
2. ‘One of the Coronation Garments.’ Bailey, 1721.
3. ‘An Iron-Ring, Hoop, or Brace, in which the Gudgeons of a Wheel move.’ Phillips, 1706.
4. An ancient astronomical instrument, consisting of a circular hoop fixed in the plane of the equator (Equinoctial Armilla), sometimes crossed at right angles by another fixed in the plane of the meridian (Solstitial Armilla). The shadows cast on the concave surfaces of these indicated the recurrence of the equinoxes and solstices.
1797. Encycl. Brit., II. 419/1. Those armillas or spheres, which Hipparchus and Ptolemy … employed.
1810. Vince, Astron., xxiv. 273. The armilla, or hoop representing the ecliptic.
1834. U. K. S., Hist. Astron., vi. 32/1. The construction of the astrolabium … was rather more complicated than that of the solstitial or equatorial armillæ.
† 5. A ring or aureola. Obs.
1737. G. Smith, Cur. Relat., I. iv. 550. Incircled with an Armilla or Ring of Light.
† 6. The annular ligament of the wrist. (Perhaps not in Eng.) Obs.
[1672. Barbetti, Chirurg., V. i. Armilla membranosa manus.]
1721. in Bailey, etc.
