Also 7 (in anglicized form) testude. [a. L. testūdo tortoise, etc., f. testa a pot, shell, etc.: see TEST sb.2]
1. Path. = TALPA 2: see quots.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 215. Testudines … ben engendrid of hard fleume.
1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Testudo, a soft, large Swelling, or not very hard, in the Head, broad, in form of an Arch or Tortoise.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Testudo.
1857. Dunglison, Dict. Med. Sc., Testudo,… an encysted tumour, which has been supposed to resemble the shell of a turtle … Talpa.
2. Zool. The typical genus of the tortoise family, Testudinidæ; a member of this genus.
c. 1520. L. Andrewe, Noble Lyfe, xcv. Testudo is a fysshe in a shelle & is in the se of Inde & his shelle is very great & like a muskle.
1706. Phillips, Testudo,… the Tortoise, or Shell-crab.
1752. J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 112. The Testudo has four legs, and its body is covered with a firm shell.
3. Roman Antiq. a. An engine of war used by besiegers, consisting of a screen or shelter, with a strong and usually fire-proof arched roof; it was wheeled up to the walls, which could then be attacked in safety. Also applied to similar contrivances in more recent times.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIII. iv. 222. There is a mightie Testudo or frame made, strengthened with very long pieces of timber.
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gent., ix. 73. All engines of warre … Sambukes, Catapultes, Testudo’s, Scorpions.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 150. A Ram-engine … which, together with its testude, they setled on its wheels.
1644. Lanc. Tracts (Chetham Soc.), 187. A kind of testudo, a wooden engine running on wheeles, rooft towards the house with thick planks.
b. A shelter formed by a body of troops locking their shields together above their heads.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 174. He will join as many Shields together as would make a Roman testudo.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Testudo,… a Target-Fence.
1801. Ranken, Hist. France, I. 65. A testudo preceded the main body; and two detachments … were ready … to rush out on the enemy’s wings.
1827. Robinson, Archæol. Græca, IV. ix. (ed. 2), 372. The military testudo,… was when the soldiers were drawn up close to each other, and the rear ranks, bowing themselves, placed their targets above their heads.
c. transf. and fig. (See quots.)
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Testudo, is now applied to objects … employed as defenses for miners, etc. when working in ground or rock which is liable to cave in.
1903. Daily Chron., 30 March, 6/4. The stands were crowded, and a vast ‘testudo’ of gleaming umbrellas showed during those wild two hours how much the wretched dared.
4. Anc. Music. (See quots.)
1702. Sir T. Molyneux, in Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1270. Who … could compose such sweet Harmony upon the Guilded Lyre or Testudo.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Testudo, in antiquity, was particularly used among the poets, &c. for the ancient lyre; by reason it was originally made, by its inventor Mercury of the … shell of a … sea tortoise.
1776. Burney, Hist. Mus. (1789), I. i. 294. It is disputed whether this lyre is the same as the cithara or testudo.
5. Comb., as testudo-shaped adj.
1875. Pollen, Anc. & Mod. Furn., 19. Occasionally they were covered in wholly with a testudo-shaped roof.
