martlet

American  

[mahrt-lit] / ˈmɑrt lɪt /

noun

1. British Dialect. a house martin.

2. Heraldry. a representation of a swallow close and without legs, used especially as the cadency mark of a fourth son.

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martlet British  

/ ˈmɑːtlɪt /

noun

1. an archaic name for a martin

2. heraldry a footless bird often found in coats of arms, standing for either a martin or a swallow

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Etymology

Origin of martlet

1530–40; < Middle French martelet, variant of martinet; see martin, -et

Example Sentences

Commoner than the eagle as a charge is the martlet, a humbler bird which is never found as the sole charge of a shield.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 3 "Helmont, Jean" to "Hernosand" by Various

Andrew Harcla, the march-warden, whom Edward II. made an earl and executed as a traitor, bore the arms of St George with a martlet sable in the quarter.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 3 "Helmont, Jean" to "Hernosand" by Various

Arden or Arderne gu, three cross-crosslets fitchée or; on a chief of the second a martlet of the first.

From Shakespeare's Family by Stopes, C. C. (Charlotte Carmichael)

This guest of summer,    The temple-haunting martlet, does              approve,    By his loved masonry that the              heaven's breath    Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze.

From The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: Pepacton by Burroughs, John

Gates of wrought iron, with perhaps a martlet from the Byrd coat of arms above them, swung between tall pillars in the wall.

From Virginia: the Old Dominion by Hutchins, Frank W.