cestus

¹ American  

[ses-tuhs] / ˈsɛs təs /

especially British, cestos

noun

cesti plural

1. a girdle or belt, especially as worn by women of ancient Greece.

2. Classical Mythology. the girdle of Venus, decorated with every object that could arouse amorous desire.

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cestus ² American  

[ses-tuhs] / ˈsɛs təs /

noun

Roman Antiquity.

cestuses plural

1. a hand covering made of leather strips and often covered with metal studs, worn by boxers.

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cestus ¹ British  

/ ˈsɛstəs, ˈsɛstɒs /

noun

1. classical myth the girdle of Aphrodite (Venus) decorated to cause amorousness

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cestus ² British  

/ ˈsɛstəs /

noun

1. (in classical Roman boxing) a pugilist's gauntlet of bull's hide loaded or studded with metal

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cesti
  plural
• cestuses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cestus¹

1570–80; < Latin < Greek kestós a girdle, literally, (something) stitched, equivalent to kes- (variant stem of kenteîn to stitch; see center) + -tos verbal adjective suffix

Origin of cestus²

1725–35; < Latin cestus, caestus

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cestus cesti cestuses

They were the Army's cestus in punch after armed punch on the slogging road across North Africa, in the invasions of Sicily and Italy.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was of her that the Doctor said, “If she spoke rustic Greek instead of bad English, and wore a cestus instead of an ill-fitting corset, you’d swear she was a goddess.”

From The Life of Bret Harte With Some Account of the California Pioneers by Merwin, Henry Childs

Was the cestus buried with her, that no sense of its pre-eminent value lingered, as far as I could perceive, in the thoughts of any except myself?

From At Home And Abroad Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe by Fuller, Arthur B.

It is like the work of a skilled heavy-weight pugilist, or the work of an old Roman fighter with the cestus.

From The North Pole Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club by Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin)

Juno, having borrowed the cestus of Venus, first obtains the assistance of Sleep, and then hastens to Ida to inveigle Jove.

From The Iliad of Homer (1873) by Buckley, Theodore Alois

Stonore: Cest usage est molt encontre la ley, qe cesti qe doit tenir les plees ne poet pas recorder un attourne en ple qe serra plede devant lui mesme.

From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Vinogradoff, Paul

The ladies wore bandeaux, cestuses, and ribands, stamped and embroidered with the name of Washington; some in gold and silver letters, and some in pearls.

From Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. by Lossing, Benson John