Forms: 5–7 toile, 7 toyle, 9 tuille, tuile. [a. F. tuile, OF. tieule, in 15th c. teuille, L. tēgula TILE, plaque.] In mediæval armor, One of two or more plates of steel hanging below, or forming the lowest part of, the tasses, and covering the front of the thighs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 6420. Ector … come … þere the corse lay, Wold haue Robbit the Renke of his riche wede With the ton hond in the toile tyrnyt it offe.
a. 1470. Tiptoft, in Segar, Hon. Mil. & Civ., III. li. (1602), 189. Who so hitteth the Toyle three times, shall haue no prize.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xix. (Roxb.), 180/2.
1834. Planché, Brit. Costume, 195. Tuiles, plates depending from the taces or skirt of the armour in front, over an apron of chain-mail, are first visible at this period [that of Henry VI.].
1869. Boutell, Arms & Arm., viii. (1874), 147. Over the flanks, on each side of the figure, to the faudes or taces was appended a plate, or small shield, or gardefaude (in England called a tuille), which would cover the front of the thigh.
