cestus

1
[ ses-tuhs ]

noun,plural ces·ti [ses-tahy]. /ˈsɛs taɪ/.
  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.

Origin of cestus

1
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
  • Also especially British, ces·tos .

Words Nearby cestus

Other definitions for cestus (2 of 2)

cestus2
[ ses-tuhs ]

noun,plural ces·tus·es.Roman Antiquity.
  1. a hand covering made of leather strips and often covered with metal studs, worn by boxers.

Origin of cestus

2
1725–35; <Latin cestus,caestus

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cestus in a sentence

  • She said, and loosed from her bosom the embroidered, variegated cestus; 468 where all allurements were enclosed.

  • Jupiter might as soon keep awake, when Juno came in best bib and tucker, and with the cestus of Venus, to get him to sleep.

  • Venus, goddess of beauty, is represented either entirely naked, or with some scanty drapery called a “cestus.”

    Myths of Greece and Rome | H. A. Guerber
  • Controversy with boxing is the cestus, that is, the lead-loaded glove, like the pugilists in the Æneid.

    Anima Poet | Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • He cared no more either for the prowess of two combatants who, wearing a cestus on the left arm, fought with sticks.

British Dictionary definitions for cestus (1 of 2)

cestus1

cestos (ˈsɛstɒs)

/ (ˈsɛstəs) /


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

Origin of cestus

1
C16: from Latin, from Greek kestos belt, from kentein to stitch

British Dictionary definitions for cestus (2 of 2)

cestus2

caestus

/ (ˈsɛstəs) /


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

Origin of cestus

2
C18: from Latin caestus, probably from caedere to strike, slay

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012