Forms: 4 armurie, 5–6 armery, armorye, -orie, -ary, 6– armory, armoury. [Perh. orig. a. OF. armoierie, armoirie. But from the earliest period treated as a derivative of ARMOUR, and spelt like it armurie, armery, armory, armoury. With senses 3–5, cf. also OF. armeurerie, now armurerie, the office or store of the armeurier, arsenal (in which sense Godefroy has also armoirie). By some, in 16th c., referred to L. armārium (see AMBRY), and spelt armary. As armour was, in 16th c., often written armor, the spelling armory was common down to the present century. Cf. ARMORY.]
1. Armor collectively. arch.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, 194. If I may be auaile of hors or armurie.
1400. Griffith, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 2, I. 6. I boȝt armery … and horses, and other araement.
1577. Harrison, England, II. v. 115. Armorie meet for their defense and service.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 27. That armory, Wherein ye have great glory wonne this day.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 553. Celestial Armourie, Shields, Helmes, and Speares.
1783. Cowper, Task, V. 139. The armory of Winter.
1802. Wordsw., Sonn. Liberty, I. xvi. In our halls is hung Armoury of the invincible Knights of old.
† 2. An armed force. Obs.
c. 1400. Syr Tryam., 49. The kyng bad ordeygne hys armoryes, Knyghtys, squyers, and palfrays, Alle redy for to goo.
c. 1532. Ld. Berners, Huon, 523. That with an armeri al ye haue passed, & taken castels.
3. A place where arms are kept, an arsenal.
1538. Leland, Itin., IV. 54. A great large Tour caullid White Tour: wherin is now the Kinges Armary.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., IV. ii. 11. The goodliest weapons of his armorie.
1611. Bible, Song Sol. iv. 4. The tower of Dauid builded for an armorie.
1671. Milton, Samson, 1281. Their armories and magazines contemns.
1711. Vind. Sacheverell, 8. Like one of the Figures in the Queens-Armory in the Tower.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 678. The public buildings are, an exchange … armoury, poor house.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 171. The armoury … a gothic hall furnished with weapons of various kinds and ages.
4. fig. (Cf. also ARMORY2.)
1615. Hieron, Wks., I. 618. The diuels storehouse and his armory of tentations.
1689. Selden, Table T., 9. A Book of Apothegms is an armoury of thought.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., II. 31. Language is the armoury of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.
1877. L. Morris, Epic Hades, I. 31. The subtle wiles a woman draws From the armoury of hate.
5. The workshop of an armorer; a place where arms are manufactured (U.S.).
1841. in Webster.
1859. in Worcester.
1860. Bartlett, s.v., The Springfield Armory.
6. The craft of the armorer.
1718. Pope, Iliad, VII. 270. The work of Tychius, who … in all arts of armoury excell’d.
