arms

/ ɑːmz /

plural noun

1. weapons collectively See also small arms
2. military exploits

   prowess in arms

3. the official heraldic symbols of a family, state, etc, including a shield with distinctive devices, and often supports, a crest, or other insignia
4. bear arms
   1. to carry weapons
   2. to serve in the armed forces
   3. to have a coat of arms
5. in arms or under arms
   armed and prepared for war
6. lay down one's arms
   to stop fighting; surrender
7. present arms
   military
   1. a position of salute in which the rifle is brought up to a position vertically in line with the body, muzzle uppermost and trigger guard to the fore
   2. the command for this drill
8. take arms or take up arms
   to prepare to fight
9. to arms!
   arm yourselves!
10. up in arms
    indignant; prepared to protest strongly

Word History and Origins

Origin of arms¹

C13: from Old French armes, from Latin arma; see arm ²

Example Sentences

Washington currently stars as Macrinus, an ambitious arms dealer, in "Gladiator II"

From Salon

At 9:30 a.m at the Original Los Angeles Flower Market, his arms were full of cone-shaped paper bundles, and he was making a final purchase of greenery to finish off his distinctive display.

From Los Angeles Times

“My brother-in-law in Lubban - next to the Israeli settlement - went to pick his own olives, but they broke his arms and they made him leave along with everyone who was with him.”

From BBC

In a tweet he posted shortly before the election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took arms against the Food and Drug Administration and its scientists.

From Los Angeles Times

Two, the Trump administration sold more arms to Taiwan than any other.

From BBC

About This Word

What else does arms mean?

Arms, of course, are the upper limbs of the body. It’s also a term for weapons, especially guns (firearms).

Where does arms come from?

The word arm, as in the body part, is a very old word in English; it’s recorded in Old English and comes from Germanic roots. Arms as in “weapons,” comes from the Latin arma, “tools of war,” which passed into English from French in the 1200s.  

In the Middle Ages, arms referred to various weapons (e.g., bows and arrows, catapults) and equipment of war, including defensive shields and armor. Today, arms for weaponry can sound a little dated, except for expressions like arms race, first used in the 1920s for the competitive buildup of weapons between nations (then nuclear arms race) and later extended as a metaphor for any competition. 

Another common arms-related expression is to take (up) arms, “to prepare for a (literal or figurative) fight.” Shakespeare’s Hamlet used the phrase in the famous “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy:

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,|
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep;
No more …

The opposite expression, and just as familiar, expression is to lay down arms, or “surrender” or “stop fighting.” This is also used in reference to actual or imaginary combat.

By the late 1600s, the word arms was narrowing to its current sense of firearms, such as pistols and rifles. These arms are at the center of the much debated language of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

A coat of arms was originally a type of outerwear that medieval knights wore in battle. They bore heraldic symbols representing who they were and who they were fighting for. Families and organizations later adopted these emblems as crests.

To be up in arms, which dates back to the late 16th century, means “ready to fight” and later, “very upset.”

How is arms used in real life?

On its own, arms for “weapons” sounds more formal, showing up in more historical texts and legal contexts. Expect to hear arms, though, in the discussion of gun rights in the U.S. surrounding the Second Amendment.

Also expect to hear arms in its related verbal form, to arm, “equip with a weapon,” (e.g., if a cop yells “He’s armed and dangerous!”). Armed, here, usually means carrying a gun.

More examples of arms:

“March on, march on, since we are up in arms;
If not to fight with foreign enemies,
Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.”
—William Shakespeare, Richard III, 1592–93

“China joins Russia in signaling it will veto any US resolution to extend arms embargo on Iran & resist snapback.”
—@farnazfassihi, May 2020

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.