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

After this, while the dolphin was maintained, a cestus was sometimes added, and heavy drapery applied in various folds.

From Art Principles With Special Reference to Painting Together with Notes on the Illusions Produced by the Painter by Ernest Govett

The power of Venus over the heart, was supported and assisted by a celebrated girdle, called zone by the Greeks, and cestus by the Latins.

From Heathen Mythology by Various

From practice boxers will not so much as utter a groan, however bruised by the cestus.

From The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by Cicero by Charles Duke Yonge

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 Arthur B. Fuller

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 Paul Vinogradoff

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 Benson John Lossing