Definition of "cuirass" [cui•rass]

• A piece of armor for protecting the breast and back. (noun)
• The breastplate alone. (noun)
• A defense or protection: "A carefully primped irony, that cuirass of art in the early Eighties, is necessary—a distance so affected as to constitute a hopeless impediment to feeling” ( Robert Hughes). (noun)
• Zoology A protective covering of bony plates or scales. (noun)
• To protect with a cuirass. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Primitive armour was based on a leather foundation, hence the name cuirass, was derived from _cuir_ (leather)."
• "The cuirass was the parade one; the one he had used in battle was too worn and hacked to match the splendors around."
• "Persian; and there the Circassian* with his long hair and chain cuirass."