tonlet

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word tonlet. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word tonlet, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say tonlet in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word tonlet you have here. The definition of the word tonlet will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition oftonlet, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

From Middle English tonlet, Old French tonnelet (French tonnelet (high breeches; keg)).

Pronunciation

Noun

tonlet (plural tonlets)

  1. (historical) A long armoured skirt, designed for combat on foot.
    Coordinate terms: base, lamboys
    • 2014, Glenn Richardson, The Field of Cloth of Gold, Yale University Press, →ISBN:
      Accordingly, the Greenwich armoury hurriedly prepared a somewhat more conventional suit of foot combat armour made from existing pieces but incorporating newly made symmetrical pauldrons and a tonlet.
    • 2019, Pierre TerjanianAndrea Bayeret al., The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 96:
      On some the buttocks and groin are also fully encased in steel; while, on others, these same parts are protected by a tonlet, a deep steel skirt that widens downward to facilitate leg movement (see cat. 37).
  2. (historical) One of the plates which make up such a skirt.
    • 1926, Hugh Chisholm, James Louis Garvin, The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature & General Information. 13th Ed., Being Volumes One to Twenty-eight of the Latest Standard Edition with the Three New Volumes Covering Recent Years and the Index Volume, page 588:
      Soon after this the six or eight "tonlets" grow fewer, being continued on the lower edge by the so-called tuilles, small plates strapped to the tonlets and swinging with the movement of the legs.
    • 2013, Wolfgang Bruhn, Max Tilke, A Pictorial History of Costume From Ancient Times to the Nineteenth Century: With Over 1900 Illustrated Costumes, Including 1000 in Full Color, Courier Corporation, →ISBN:
      The steel tonlets are rigid, not overlapping and movable.
    • 2014, Desmond Seward, Richard III: England's Black Legend, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
      His legs and thighs were similarly covered in plate, his loins by a mail apron over which was a short skirt of horizontal, overlapping plate 'tonlets'. His torso was protected by breast and back plates, the former reinforced []

Alternative forms