ventail
Americannoun
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the pivoted middle element of a face defense of a close helmet.
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a flap of mail attached to a coif and fastened across the lower part of the face during combat.
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
Origin of ventail
1300–50; Middle English < Middle French ventaille, equivalent to vent (< Latin ventus wind 1 ) + -aille -al 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The movable front to a helmet; the ventail.
From Project Gutenberg
Two thousand were there that for sorrow for the four knights unlaced their ventails, and tore their hair and their beards.
From Project Gutenberg
Erec grabs him by the helmet and forcibly drags it from his head, and unlaces the ventail, so that his head and face are completely exposed.
From Project Gutenberg
He maketh them take off their helmets and lower their ventails, and then kiss one another, afterward he leadeth them to his hermitage.
From Project Gutenberg
She puts on his hauberk with its strong meshes, and laces on his ventail.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
