OE. had wǽpned male (cf. WEAPON sb. 3).]
Furnished with weapons or a weapon; armed.
(a) c. 1000. Ælfric, N. T. (Gr.), 18/19. He com þa ʓewæmnod.
a. 1122. O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 992. Hi … þæt scip ʓenamon eall ʓewæpnod & ʓewædod.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3373. Wopened he ben a-gen israel.
1352. Minot, Poems, iv. 39. He broght folk … Þat ful wele wapnid were.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, VII. 359. I and þow be here allone, iliche wel i-horsed and i-wepened.
c. 1450. in Kingsford, Chron. Lond. (1905), 136. And all this tyme chorlys of Normandy weren wepond, and born harnes.
1600. Looke about You, C 4. You see I am weapned … Ile stab them come there twenty.
a. 1652. Brome, Queenes Exch., II. iii. They are three sturdy knaves and strongly weapon’d.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, V. xxxii. For they were weaponed, and prepared Their mistress on her way to guard.
a. 1861. T. Winthrop, Life in Open Air, i. (1863), 8. I was weaponed with a staff, should brute or biped uncourteous dispute our way.
1907. J. H. McCarthy, Needles & Pins, xx. 247. You shall be well clad, well weaponed, well horsed.
(b) c. 1200. Ormin, 10225. Þe cnihhtess wærenn wæpnedd follc.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2479. Wel wopnede men.
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Ireland, 10. Robert … sette the bowmen for to wer the fight of the kernels, and turned the wepned men to fill þe diches.
1535. Coverdale, Prov. vi. 11. Necessite [shall come to us] like a wapened man.
1603. T. Wale in Lismore Papers, Ser. II. (1887), I. 65. There should be two hundreth weaponed men put into armes by the cyttie.
1680. C. Nesse, Church Hist., 372. In the sight and despight of sixty weaponed witnesses.
1798. W. Taylor, in Robberds, Mem. (1843), I. 219. The weapon’d slaves of tyranny.
1898. Meredith, Odes Fr. Hist., 76. Her weaponed children’s moan Of stifled rage invoking vengeance.
b. quasi-Her.
1685. H. More, Illustr. Daniel, etc., 344. He alone is said to ride weaponed, viz. with a Sword coming out of his mouth.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., V. 413. A griffin gules, crowned Or and weaponed, in a field azure.
c. fig.
c. 1200. Ormin, 677. Whas itt iss þatt wæpnedd iss Wiþþ fulle trowwþe o Criste.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke xxi. 5–11. Great pestilences … shal … consume a mightie great noumbre of people in sort as though the aire were armed & weaponed to doe vengeaunce vpon the euil sort.
1563. Shute, Archit., 3 b. Yf a man myght be parfaict in al these sciences as were Aristarchus,… Architas, [etc.] … (for all these were strongely weaponed with al these sciences before rehersed).
1616. J. Hayward, Sanct. Troub. Soul, I. iii. (1620), 10. I was come to a greater staiednesse,… I was warned, I was weaponed; I was instructed, I was encouraged.
1839. J. Sterling, Poems, 156. The scathed and haggard face of will, And look so strong with weaponed thought.
1844. Emerson, Ess., xx., Wks. (Bohn), I. 249. We are amphibious creatures, weaponed for two elements, having two sets of faculties, the particular and the catholic. Ibid. (1860), Cond. Life, vi. ibid., II. 408. In all the encounters that have yet chanced, I have not been weaponed for that particular occasion, and have been historically beaten.
1916. Edin. Rev., July, 15. ‘Responsible Government’ … may also be found incompatible with that kind of weaponed and sentinelled peace that will follow the conflict.
d. transf. (Cf. WEAPON sb. 1 d, 3.)
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. 126. It [the ass] is a woonderful Coltishe beast, & vnreasonably weapned [L. animal mire salax, pro corporis portione membrosius].
1643. Milton, Divorce, 2. Yet they shall, so they be but found suitably weapon’d to the lest possibilitie of sensuall enjoyment, be made, spight of antipathy, to fadge together.
1810. Southey, Kehama, XVI. xiii. His mouth, from ear to ear, Weapon’d with triple teeth, extended wide.
