ventail
the pivoted middle element of a face defense of a close helmet.
a flap of mail attached to a coif and fastened across the lower part of the face during combat.
Origin of ventail
1- Also aventail.
Words Nearby ventail
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use ventail in a sentence
It has a tilting helmet with visor in two pieces, and a shutter in the ventail; the leg-armour is still complete.
Spanish Arms and Armour | Albert F. CalvertThe other drags him by the helmet, tearing all the fastening, and he strikes from his head the ventail and the gleaming coif.
Four Arthurian Romances | Chretien DeTroyesThe ventail bris dates from the period of the first introduction of the folded fan into Europe.
History of the Fan | George Woolliscroft RheadThe upper part is the visor, to admit of vision, the lower the ventail, to admit of breathing.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 (of 7) -- Notes to the Canterbury Tales | Geoffrey ChaucerI fail to see why; the weapon that pierced a ventail would pass into the head, and inflict a death-wound.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 5 (of 7) -- Notes to the Canterbury Tales | Geoffrey Chaucer
British Dictionary definitions for ventail
/ (ˈvɛnteɪl) /
(in medieval armour) a covering for the lower part of the face
Origin of ventail
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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