[f. BREAST + PLATE, q.v. for Forms]
1. A piece of armor for protecting the breast; also, any plate worn on the breast.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2120. Som wol ben armed in an haubergeon And in bristplate.
1535. Coverdale, Ephes. vi. 14. Hauing on the breast-plate of righteousnesse.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 62. Sword, Shield, Helmet, Breastplate.
1814. Scott, Ld. Isles, VI. xxxii. A lance’s point Has found his breastplate’s loosen’d joint.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, II. 11. The breast-plate … with a little steel boss in the centre and straps attached to fasten it over the workman’s belly.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 158. The Bayonet Belt is to be then fitted in front, and wherever it crosses the Pouch Belt, there the Breast-Plate is to be placed.
2. A folded piece of embroidered linen worn on the breast of the Jewish high-priest, and adorned with twelve precious stones, representing the twelve tribes. Cf. Exod. xxviii. xxxix.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 75. In the Ephod or in the brest plate were .12. precious stones.
1611. Bible, Ex. xxviii. 4. A breastplate [Wyclif breest broche, racional; Coverdale brestlappe], and an Ephod, and a robe.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 598. The Twelve that shon In Aarons Brest-plate.
1868. W. B. Marriott, Vestiar. Christ., 79.
3. In various technical uses: as a. Building. A breast-summer. b. Mech. A plate in which the butt end of a drill is inserted when the pressure is applied by the breast in boring. c. = BREAST-PLOUGH. d. A strap or arrangement of straps passing across the breast of a riding-horse and attached to the saddle and saddle-girths. e. Zool. The under part of the horny case of a tortoise or turtle; the plate covering the lower side of the thorax of some insects. f. The inscription-plate on a coffin.
1667. Primatt, City & C. Build., 59. Summers, Brest-plates, with Joysts, Rafters, and Window-frames.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 7. The Drill-Plate, or Breast-Plate … hath an hole punched a little way into it, to set the blunt end of the Shank of the Drill in.
1704. Dict. Rust. et Urb., s.v. Burning, A Breastplayt to pare off the Turff.
a. 1720. W. Gibson, Diet of Horses, viii. (ed. 3), 127. I have seen horses sometimes galled and fretted by buckling their Breast-plates too tight.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xvii. We lived entirely upon tortoise-meat; the breast-plate roasted … with the flesh on it is very good.
1849. in Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. 586. A butterfly … through a very remarkable opening in the breast-plate, emitted a great quantity of a sort of froth.
1864. Derby Mercury, 7 Dec., 2/5. The outer shell of the coffin was of oak, covered with black cloth, and upon the breast-plate was an inscription recording the name and age of the deceased.
