[f. ARM sb.1 + -LET. Cf. OFr. bracelet in first three senses.]
1. An ornament or band worn round the arm. (Sometimes distinguished from bracelet, which is worn only at the wrist.)
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xxi. 21. Lernynge is vnto a wyse man … like an armlett vpon his right arme.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., I. 23. Working … Of soft and dainty maiden-haire, A curious Armelet.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 1177. An armlet for the roundest arm on earth.
1879. Maclear, Celts, ii. 13. They wear … bracelets and armlets.
2. A small inlet of the sea or branch of a river.
1538. Leland, Itin., II. 31. I markid diverse armelettes breking out of the 2 Streames.
1577. Holinshed, Descr. Brit., xii. 55/1. The water separateth it selfe into two armelets.
1864. Vambery, Trav. Centr. Asia, 149. In the main stream it was well enough, but in the armlets at the side we settled every ten paces on the sand.
3. A piece of armor for the arm.
1706. in Phillips.
