baldrick

• baldric, baudric, baudrick, bawdrick

baldrick (plural baldricks)

1. A broad belt, sometimes richly ornamented, worn over one shoulder, across the breast, and under the opposite arm; less properly, any belt.
   • 1400?, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, line 2485.:

     And the bright green belt on his body he bore, oblique, like a baldrick, bound at his side below his left shoulder, laced in a knot...

   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act I, Scene I, line 238:

     That a woman conceiv'd me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks; but that I will have a rechate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me.

   • 1800?, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Lady Of Shalott, part III, verse 2:

     And from his blazoned baldrick slung, a mighty silver bugle hung...

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 33:

     The sword was carried in a belt of buff or other leather girded round the body, or thrown over the right shoulder, these shoulder belts were called baudricks.