gorget

From Middle English gorget, from Old French gorgete, from gorge (“throat”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔːdʒɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡoɹ.d͡ʒɪt/, /ˈɡoɹ.d͡ʒɛt/, /ˈɡoɹ.d͡ʒət/, /ˌɡoɹˈʒeɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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gorget (plural gorgets)

1. (historical) A piece of armour protecting the throat and/or the upper part of the chest.

   Synonyms: neckplate, hausse-col, (less common) gorgerin, (less common) gorgerette

   • 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. , London: John Martyn and Henry Herringman, , published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     About his neck a threefold gorget, / As rough as trebled leathern target

   • 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, , and A Constable and Co., , →OCLC:

     Unfix the gorget's iron clasp.

   • 1968, Michael Moorcock, The Mad God's Amulet, Gollancz, published 2003, page 209:

     Hawkmoon whipped his sword from the scabbard, leaped forward, and drove the blade into the throat of the warrior just below his gorget.

   • 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 500:

     Renly lifted his chin to allow Brienne to fasten his gorget in place.

2. (historical) A crescent-shaped ornamental metal plate suspended around the neck from the crescent's points by a length of chain or ribbon, used to indicate rank or authority and was worn as part of a dress military uniform by officers.
3. (historical) A type of women's clothing covering the neck and breast; a wimple.

   Synonym: (less common) gorgerette

4. An ornament for the neck; a necklace, ornamental collar, torque etc.
5. (surgery) A cutting instrument used in lithotomy.

   Synonym: (obsolete) gorgeret

6. A grooved instrument used in performing various operations; called also blunt gorget.^[1]
7. (zoology) A crescent-shaped coloured patch on the neck of a bird or mammal.
   • 1917, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

     There was […] the golden-winged woodpecker, with his crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage […]

8. (UK, dialect, Cornwall) A hake caught in a net set for other fish.

• gorget hummer
• gorgeted

• “gorget”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.