armsbearing

A1R1M3S1B3E1A1R1I1N1G2

noun

The act of bearing arms; the possession of weapons.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounarmsbearing (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe act of bearing arms; the possession of weapons.

    II. A MILITIA OF ALL MEN CAPABLE OF ARMSBEARING.

    1826, F. D. Cartwright, editor, The Life and Correspondence of Major Cartwright, volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 244
    3 more examples

    Could this be effected; could all the population of the Turkish empire, of armsbearing age, be enlisted in an army, organized, disciplined, and led like the armies of France and of England, it would indeed make the Porte formidable, not merely to the Greeks, but to the leading powers in Europe, who are now able to look, with stoical calmness, at the feeble and ineffectual blows aimed by Turkey at a people who stand on the frontier of Christendom.

    1827 July, “1. Vindication of H. D. Sedgwick, with some Inquiries respecting the Award in the Case of the Greek Frigates. […]”, in The North American Review, volume XXV, number LVI, Boston, Mass.: Frederick T. Gray, […], page 43

    Within a few decades both the regular Dominicans and Franciscans, admittedly in response to more recent papal legislation as well as to these stipulations of the 1280s, were allowing armsbearing to their members under certain conditions;

    2013, Lawrence G. Duggan, Armsbearing and the Clergy in the History and Canon Law of Western Christianity, The Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 224

    As was made clear by the council of Coyanza, prohibitions on clerical armsbearing were developed in the context of the wider drive to reform the clergy of Europe in councils that were often presided over by the pope’s own representatives.

    2017, Daniel M. G. Gerrard, The Church at War: The Military Activities of Bishops, Abbots and Other Clergy in England, c.900-1200, Routledge, page 160
adjectivearmsbearing (not comparable)
  1. not comparableEngaged in bearing arms; armed.

    In a war with a single tribe, near a tenth part of the armsbearing population of Massachusetts was killed, and one house in ten laid in ashes.

    1837, Speech of Mr Cushing of Massachusetts, on the Proposition to Censure Mr John Quincy Adams, for an Alleged Disrespect to the House of Representatives, page 11
    3 more examples

    I shall proceed, however, to investigate, as far as possible, the several differences borne by the Nevilles upon the saltire of their first armsbearing ancestor, Robert fitz Maldred.

    1866, read by John Gough Nichols, “The armorial windows erected in the reign of Henry VI. by John Viscount Beaumont and Katharine Duchess of Norfolk in Woodhouse Chapel, by the Park of Beaumanor, in Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire. Including an investigation of the differences of the Coat of Neville.”, in Transactions of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society, volume I, Leicester: Crossley and Clarke, page 326

    When it is understood that in a single county in New Jersey, that of Essex, but two per cent. of the armsbearing population liable to military duty is enrolled in the National Guard, the objection, apart from every other consideration, to creating the whole or a considerable majority of any one class or race of citizen armsbearers carries no little weight.

    1878 May 1, “The Color Question”, in The National Guardsman: A Journal Devoted to the Interests of the National Guard of the U. S., volume I, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Charles A. Coffin, […], page 169

    The net result of both wars was the victory of an armsbearing equestrian gentry with a lifestyle radically different from that of the courtiers.

    1979, Carl Steenstrup, Hōjō Shigetoki (1198-1261) and His Role in the History of Political and Ethical Ideas in Japan, Curzon Press, →ISBN, page 7

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

armsbearing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/armsbearing

MLA

“armsbearing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/armsbearing. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “armsbearing,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/armsbearing.

Source: armsbearing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.