Plastron

Quick meaning: Plastron is a noun meaning (zoology) The nearly flat part of the shell structure of a tortoise or other animal, similar in composition to the carapace.

Meaning

(zoology) The nearly flat part of the shell structure of a tortoise or other animal, similar in composition to the carapace.

More Meanings

1. (fencing) A half-jacket worn under the jacket for padding or for safety.
2. A man's shirt-bosom.
3. An ornamental front panel on a woman's bodice.
4. A breastplate.
5. A film of air trapped by specialized hairs against the body of an aquatic insect, and which acts as an external gill.

Example Sentences

The plastron of a diving beetle is not directly a source of oxygen, but acts as a gill, acquiring oxygen from the surrounding water.

"Why, compared to what thou wast, Hugo, thou art as a deerskin coat to a steel plastron.-- Art thou not in love, man? Answer me!" "Something like, I fear me, beau sire,” replied the squire.

I bought here a wedding dress perhaps twenty or thirty years old [...] a sequin plastron to be worn over the womb as a feminine equivalent to a cod-piece, and a gauze veil embroidered in purple and gold.

He therefore persuaded the Casa de Antillas to supply him with a hundred steel plastrons or corselets, with armlets and shoulder plates, and a hundred morions, or pikemen's helmets. This heavy armor was suitable […]

Word Forms

• plastrons

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include actinal, undershell, epiplastron, pseudocarapace, bridge, xiphiplastron.

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