Mandilion
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A loose outer garment resembling a cassock or coat, often sleeveless, worn by soldiers over armour or by menservants as a type of overcoat.
"You see likewise, that the lion, being the king of beasts; the horse, being the lustiest creature; the unicorn, whose horn is worth half a city; all these go with no more clothes on their backs, than what nature hath bestowed upon them: but your baboons, and your jackanapes, being the scum and rascality of all the hedge-creepers, they go in jerkins and mandilions."
- 2 Alternative form of mandylion. alt-of, alternative
Example
More examples"You see likewise, that the lion, being the king of beasts; the horse, being the lustiest creature; the unicorn, whose horn is worth half a city; all these go with no more clothes on their backs, than what nature hath bestowed upon them: but your baboons, and your jackanapes, being the scum and rascality of all the hedge-creepers, they go in jerkins and mandilions."
Etymology
From Middle French mandillon (from 1572), from mandille + -on (“forming diminutives of things”); compare Italian mandiglione (1598).
See mandylion.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.