testudo

American  

[te-stoo-doh, -styoo-] / tɛˈstu doʊ, -ˈstju- /

noun

• testudines
  plural

1. (among the ancient Romans) a movable shelter with a strong and usually fireproof arched roof, used for protection of soldiers in siege operations.

2. a shelter formed by overlapping oblong shields, held by soldiers above their heads.

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testudo British  

/ tɛˈstjuːdəʊ /

noun

1. a form of shelter used by the ancient Roman Army for protection against attack from above, consisting either of a mobile arched structure or of overlapping shields held by the soldiers over their heads

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• testudines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of testudo

1350–1400 for earlier sense “tumor”; 1600–10 testudo for def. 1; Middle English < Latin testūdō tortoise, tortoise shell, siege engine; akin to test ²

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

testudo testudines

But I had no spare cash to lay out on stock, either in pigments or specimens of the genus testudo.

From Mated from the Morgue A tale of the Second Empire by John Augustus O'Shea

That camera was a roof curved in the form of a testudo, is generally admitted; see Vitruv. vii.

From Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War by John Selby Watson

The sow was a military engine, resembling the Roman testudo.

From Minstrelsy of the Scottish border, Volume 1 by Sir Walter Scott

Invisible animals took it up, particle by particle, to build a testudo, a traveling house, for themselves.

From Among the Forces by Henry White Warren

The city is not represented as taken, yet sieges are often sculptured on these walls, and the Egyptian army is always supplied with scaling-ladders and the testudo.

From Sketches by Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield

Another group of animals related to diapsids are the testudines: turtles and tortoises.

From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2012

What need I mention towers, vineæ, and testudines, and the other apparatus used in attacking towns?

From The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Titus Livius

Comparisons have been drawn between the terrapin and the turtle—very absurdly; for, beyond the fact of both being testudines, there is not a point of resemblance.

From Border and Bastille by George A. (George Alfred) Lawrence