body jacket

plural body jackets

1. A form-fitting garment covering the upper body, with or without sleeves.

   1896, James O. Lyford, “The Governor’s Horse Guards” in History of Concord New Hampshire, City History Commission, Volume I, Appendix, p. iii, The uniform of the field was a white dolman, green body jacket and trousers, shako and pompon, gray astrachan fur and gold lace trimmings […]

   4 more examples

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

   1824 May, “The Drama. Covent Garden and Drury Lane”, in The London Magazine, volume 9, page 367

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

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

   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.

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

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

   1989, Matthew Hunter, chapter 32, in Comrades, New York: Popular Library, page 263

2. medicineA rigid brace that fits around the torso (but does not cover the neck, arms or legs) to immobilize the spine, reduce curvature, etc.

   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.

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1934 October, John T. Saunders, “Lateral Curvature of the Spine Should Be Treated”, in Southern Medicine & Surgery, volume 96, number 10, Charlotte, North Carolina, page 543