debruised

English

The arms of the Steward family of Swardeston feature a lion debruised by a bend raguly.

Etymology

See debruise. Compare Old French debruisier (“to shatter, break”). Compare bruise.

Adjective

debruised (not comparable)

1. (heraldry) Surmounted by an ordinary (or something else).

   A lion is debruised when a bend or other ordinary is placed over it.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 2, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The lion of England and the lilies of France without the baton sinister, under which, according to the laws of heraldry, they were debruised in token of his illegitimate birth.

   • 1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry, page 5:

     Serpent, embowed, the head debruised, or surmounted of the tail; also blazoned, […]

References

• “debruised”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.