Also 6 corslete, -lait, -lett, corselette, 6–8 corcelet, 7 corpslet. [a. F. corselet (16th c. in Littré), double dim. of cors body (cf. It. corsaletto, Sp. corselete, from Fr.).]
1. A piece of defensive armor covering the body.
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs (Arb.), 121. All armed braue in Corsletes white.
1584. T. Hudson, Judith, I. (1613), 369 (D.). While th’ Armorer … the sturdy steele doth beate, And makes thereof a corpslet or a jacke.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. State, IV. xvii. 329. Surely a corslet is no canonicall coat for me.
1696. Bp. Patrick, Comm. Ex. xxviii. (1697), 556. The ancient Habergions or Corslets … made of Leather and Linen.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, II. 502. His hack’d and riven corslet.
1840. W. H. Ainsworth, Tower of London, 2. Polished corslets flashed in the sunbeams.
1859. Tennyson, Idylls, Enid, 1008. Geraint’s [lance] Struck thro’ the bulky, bandit’s corselet home.
fig. 1637. Rutherford, Lett., cxliii. (1862), I. 339. The love of Christ hath a corslet of proof on it and arrows will not draw blood of it.
† b. transf. A soldier armed with a corslet. Obs.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, II. i. 18. How many armed Corslets, and vnarmed pikes.
1620. Thomas, Lat. Dict., Primores … the pikemen or corslets.
1647–8. Cotterell, Davila’s Hist. Fr. (1678), 528. La Fountaine-Martel and Agueville … sallied out … each with ten Firelocks, and twenty Corslets.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. Introd. 17. To levy certain horsemen, both demy-lances and corslets.
2. A garment (usually tight-fitting) covering the body as distinct from the limbs.
c. 1500. Two Dandies, in Furniv., Ballads fr. MSS., I. 456. Wyth corselettys of fyne veluet slyped Down to the hard kne.
1683. Brit. Spec., 92. He [Cæsar] offered to Venus Genitrix, the Patroness of his Family, a Corslet of British Pearles, as a Testimony of his Glorious Enterprize.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, I. 18. The women wear a petticoat, and a short corselet or jacket closely fitting their shapes.
1895. Globe, 31 Jan., 7/4. Velvet corselet over a faille bodice, and sleeves embroidered to match.
3. Zool. That part of an insect which lies between the head and abdomen; the thorax. Also applied to an external structure on the thorax of some fishes, and to the mantle or pallium of a mollusk.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Corcelet, in natural history, that part of the fly class which is analogous in its situation to the breast in other animals…. Some flies have a double corcelet.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1860), II. III. ii. 501/2. The animal [butterfly] may be divided into three parts; the head, the corselet, and the body.
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 201. A soft corslet round the thorax, formed by scales larger and smoother than those on the rest of the body.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 711/2. The corslet occupies a part of the superior and posterior edge of the shell. Ibid. (1839), II. 380/2. It [the mantle] is here not unfrequently termed the corselet.
1848. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. vi. 312. The legs are represented too long, the corselet or thorax too narrow.
4. Comb., as corslet-maker, -making; † corslet-man, a soldier armed with a corslet.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xvi. 69. Two thousand corslet-men.
1886. Sidgwick, Hist. Ethics, ii. § 3. 30. Xenophon has recorded … a dialogue with a corslet-maker, in which Socrates … draws out the rationale of corslet-making.
