cestus

¹ American  

[ses-tuhs] / ˈsɛs təs /

especially British, cestos

noun

plural

cesti

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.

plural

cestuses

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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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

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

Round the frieze are the games of Greece, the chariot and foot-race, the horse-race, the wrestlers, the cestus, &c.

From Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected Vol. II (of 3) by Jameson, Mrs. (Anna)

Ah! believe me, it is she who has the cestus!

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson Swanston Edition Vol. 6 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Charm of cestus has ceased With thy clasp!

From The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Vol. I by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

What it is; or, rather, who she is, her fingers being among the deftest in laying the ground-threads of Aglaia's cestus.

From The Queen of the Air Being a Study of the Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm by Ruskin, John