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

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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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

testudo testudines

The single round arch of this vestibule repeats the testudo of a Roman bath, and the decorative details are accurately reproduced from similar monuments.

From Renaissance in Italy Volume 3 The Fine Arts by John Addington Symonds

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

Putting their shields upon their heads in a formation much like the old Roman testudo, they advance to the house in bodies of four or six and begin to hack down the posts.

From The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir by John M. Garvan

One day when they fell into an ambush and were struck with fast-flying arrows, they suddenly made by joining shields the testudo, and rested their left knees on the ground.

From Dio's Rome, Volume 3 An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During The Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus by Herbert Baldwin Foster

Then we have the Ram, cancer testudo, that battereth; next we have the Tower or Beffroi that goeth on wheels—yonder you shall see them a-building.

From Beltane the Smith by Jeffery Farnol

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

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