noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A shelter formed by a body of troops holding their shields or targets close together over their heads. Ancient-Rome, historical
2. 2
   a movable protective covering that provided protection from above; used by Roman troops when approaching the walls of a besieged fortification wordnet
3. 3
   A shelter of similar shape for miners, etc.
4. 4
   The fornix.
5. 5
   A chelys (kind of lyre)

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6. 6
   An encysted tumour.

Synonyms

All synonyms

chelys lyregenus testudosheltronturtle

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin testūdō (“tortoise, turtle, lyre, type of military shelter”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.