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Surcoat   Listen
noun
Surcoat  n.  
1.
A coat worn over the other garments; especially, the long and flowing garment of knights, worn over the armor, and frequently emblazoned with the arms of the wearer. "A long surcoat of pers upon he had.." "At night, or in the rain, He dons a surcoat which he doffs at morn."
2.
A name given to the outer garment of either sex at different epochs of the Middle Ages.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Surcoat" Quotes from Famous Books



... manly maturity. Were it a preux chevalier sitting under this verbal lens for his photograph, there might be difficulty in proceeding farther in this description; for though your knight of old seems to have been splendidly oblivious as to the needs of clean linen, and able to wear one surcoat and one suit of armor for any length of time without becoming repugnant to the nose of his lady when brought-into the opportunity for an embrace,—yet the heroes of this day have sore need of occasional aid from the washerwoman, and even the tailor becomes necessary for the replenishing of worn-out ...
— Shoulder-Straps - A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 • Henry Morford

... wasteful and absurd extravagance in dress. The ladies wore the houppelande, the cotte hardie, tight around the girdle, and looped up their sleeves excessivement to show this cotte hardie; they also had openings in the surcoat to show the girdle. These openings the preachers called "windows of hell." "They made their stomachs prominent, and seemed, all of them, enceinte: this mode they clung to for forty years." "The more the misery increased, the more the luxury augmented; at the Hotel de Boheme, inhabited by Louis ...
— Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 1 • William Walton

... against the north wall, has now found shelter in the recess which happens to hold it exactly. It is a remarkably fine piece of oak carving, and represents a knight clad in chain armour, consisting of a hauberk with sleeves, over which is thrown a surcoat crossed by two belts, one round the waist for the sword, the other crossing the body diagonally to hold the shield. The cross-guard of the sword is of metal, and is probably a reparation. The head wears a conical helmet, and ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral • George Worley

... clergy; they put on their surplices, and with crosses of silver went out to meet the ladies, and that good one Minaya. He who was born in happy hour made no tarriance; they saddled him Bavieca and threw his trappings on. My Cid wore light armour, and his surcoat over it: long was his beard. He went out upon this horse, and ran a career with him; Bavieca was the name of the horse, and when he was running all marvelled at him: from that day Bavieca was famous all over Spain. At the end of the course my Cid alighted and went toward his wife ...
— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various

... learns at least that Nicolette is in the wood, and he rides at adventure after her, till the thorns have ruined his silken surcoat, and the blood, dripping from his torn body, makes a visible track in the grass. So, as he wept, he met a monstrous man of the wood, that asked him why he lamented. And he said he was sorrowing for a lily-white ...
— Letters on Literature • Andrew Lang

... Robert and described by Helgaldus. Nearly everything has disappeared. What has become of the chamber of the chancellery, where Saint Louis consummated his marriage? the garden where he administered justice, "clad in a coat of camelot, a surcoat of linsey-woolsey, without sleeves, and a sur-mantle of black sandal, as he lay upon the carpet with Joinville?" Where is the chamber of the Emperor Sigismond? and that of Charles IV.? that of Jean the Landless? Where is the staircase, from which Charles VI. promulgated his edict ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo

... entitled Tyrannus or the Mode, an invective against 'our so much affecting the French' in dress, and he was pleased with the idea that afterwards, in 1666, a change in costume then adopted by the King and court was due to this cause. He, too, donned and went to office in 'the vest and surcoat and tunic as 'twas call'd, after his Majesty had brought the whole Court to it. It was a comely and manly habit, too good to hold, it being impossible for us in good earnest to leave ye ...
— Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) - Or A Discourse of Forest Trees • John Evelyn

... constitution of the Order was as golden as its badge—the eight-pointed cross—which the brethren wore round their neck. They wore it also in white over their shoulder upon a black mantle. And the knights who had been admitted to the full honors of the Order had a scarlet surcoat, likewise with the white cross, over their armor. The whole brotherhood was under the command of a Grand Master, who was elected in a chapter of all the knights, and to whom all ...
— A Book of Golden Deeds • Charlotte M. Yonge

... sovereign was head; but this number has been increased by extending the honour to descendants of George I., II., and III., and also to distinguished foreigners; it is the highest order of knighthood, and is designated K.G.; the insignia of the order includes surcoat, mantle, star, &c., but the knights are chiefly distinguished by a garter of blue velvet worn on the left leg below the knee, and bearing the inscription in gold letters Honi soit qui mal y pense, ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... the tomb of Henry IV and his queen; and here was the tomb of Edward, the Black Prince, with a bronze figure of the prince, richly embossed and enamelled, reclining upon the top, and over the canopy were suspended the surcoat and casque, the gloves of mail and shield, with which he was accoutred when he fought the famous battle of Crecy. There also stood the marble chair in which the Saxon kings were crowned, and in which, with the natural desire that all seemed to have in such cases, ...
— Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals - In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Samuel F. B. Morse

... Quixote examined his adversary, and found that he already had his helmet on and visor lowered, so that he could not see his face; he observed, however, that he was a sturdily built man, but not very tall in stature. Over his armour he wore a surcoat or cassock of what seemed to be the finest cloth of gold, all bespangled with glittering mirrors like little moons, which gave him an extremely gallant and splendid appearance; above his helmet fluttered a ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra



Words linked to "Surcoat" :   tunic



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