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Webster 1913 Edition


Bandolier

{

Banˊdo-leer′

,

Banˊdo-lier′

}
,
Noun.
[F.
bandoulière
(cf. It.
bandoliera
, Sp.
bandolera
), fr. F.
bande
band, Sp. & It.
banda
. See
Band
,
Noun.
]
1.
A broad leather belt formerly worn by soldiers over the right shoulder and across the breast under the left arm. Originally it was used for supporting the musket and twelve cases for charges, but later only as a cartridge belt.
2.
One of the leather or wooden cases in which the charges of powder were carried.
[Obs.]

Definition 2024


bandolier

bandolier

English

Mexican Revolutionary General Pancho Villa wearing two bandoliers.

Alternative forms

Noun

bandolier (plural bandoliers)

  1. An ammunition belt, worn over the shoulder, having loops or pockets for cartridges.
    • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 32, in The Dust of Conflict:
      The vivid, untrammeled life appealed to him []; but he was wise and knew that once peace was established there would be no room in Cuba for the Sin Verguenza.
        “None better to face peril or adversity with, but a change is coming, and one cannot always wear the bandolier,” he said.
    • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 3,
      [] with the casual but combative look of the urban photographer, black T-shirt and baseball boots, twenty-pocketed waistcoat and bandolier of film.
Derived terms

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