caparisoned

English

Knight on caparisoned steed

Etymology

caparison +‎ -ed

Pronunciation

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Adjective

caparisoned (comparative more caparisoned, superlative most caparisoned)

1. (of a horse or elephant) Having a richly ornamented harness.
2. Dressed in richly ornamented finery.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter X, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 108:

     Preceded by the richly caparisoned guards, care had been taken to give them the appearance of an escort necessary to dignity—but not to security.

   • 1951 December, “Notes and News: Overland to Iraq”, in Railway Magazine, page 854:

     Nevertheless, a good Turkish meal was enjoyed in the merry company of Customs men and divers gaily-caparisoned officials.

Verb

caparisoned

1. simple past and past participle of caparison
   • 1889, Henry James, The Solution:

     She was tall and angular, and held her head very high; it was surmounted with wonderful turbans and plumages, and indeed the four ladies were caparisoned altogether in a manner of their own.

   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor:

     Every kind of harness is used; some is well blacked and greased and glittering with brass, others are almost as grey with dust as the donkey itself. Some of the jackasses are gaudily caparisoned in an old carriage-harness, which fits it like a man’s coat on a boy’s back, while the plated silver ornaments are pink, with the copper showing through; others have rope traces and belly-bands, and not a few indulge in old cotton handkerchiefs for pads.