body jacket

English

Noun

body jacket (plural body jackets)

1. A form-fitting garment covering the upper body, with or without sleeves.
   • 1824 May, “The Drama. Covent Garden and Drury Lane”, in The London Magazine, volume 9, page 367:

     Young Grimaldi, in a white body jacket, plays off several antics at the end of the first act […]

   • 1896, James O. Lyford, “The Governor’s Horse Guards” in History of Concord New Hampshire, City History Commission, Volume I, Appendix, p. iii,^[1]

     The uniform of the field was a white dolman, green body jacket and trousers, shako and pompon, gray astrachan fur and gold lace trimmings […]

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in An Outcast of the Islands, London: T. Fisher Unwin […], →OCLC, part V, page 374:

     The dazzling white stuff of her body jacket was crossed by a bar of yellow and silver of her scarf, […]

   • 1948, Marguerite Henry, chapter 22, in King of the Wind‎^[2], New York: Rand McNally, published 1970, page 163:

     Two grooms stood ready with silken lead ropes. They were dressed in the Earl’s stable colors—scarlet silk body jackets and long scarlet stockings.

   • 1989, Matthew Hunter, chapter 32, in Comrades‎^[3], New York: Popular Library, page 263:

     The soldier was sweating in his body jacket, and carrying an assault rifle […]

2. (medicine) A rigid brace that fits around the torso (but does not cover the neck, arms or legs) to immobilize the spine, reduce curvature, etc.
   • 1934 October, John T. Saunders, “Lateral Curvature of the Spine Should Be Treated”, in Southern Medicine & Surgery‎^[4], volume 96, number 10, Charlotte, North Carolina, page 543:

     For three months after the operation the patient remains recumbent in the original bent jacket. Then he is allowed to walk in a body jacket applied so as to produce a slight list of the trunk toward the convexity of the primary curve.

   • 2000, chapter 11, in Harry B. Skinner, editor, Diagnosis and Treatment in Orthopedics‎^[5], 2nd edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, page 562:

     When the goal is to provide postural support, slow progression, or postpone (but not prevent) surgery, a polypropylene body jacket, or “clam-shell brace,” may suffice for waking or sitting hours.