escutcheon

plural escutcheons · alternative obsolete escocheon · alternative obsolete escutchion · alternative scutcheon · alternative 'scutcheon

1. governmentThe shield on which a coat of arms is displayed, or, by extension, the coat of arms itself.

   Meronyms: field, charge, emblem

   2 more examples

   He dies: his very coffin is comfortable; the very vault of his ancestors is sheltered; a funeral sermon is preached in his honour; and escutcheon and marble tablet do their best to preserve his memory.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Fête at Sir Robert Walpole’s”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 33

   And in the meanwhile, Society shivered a little feverishly, filled now with the scions of those who had come over with the Jewish and American Conquests. Escutcheons were becoming valueless, how sinister soever the blots and clots upon them.

   1922, Michael Arlen, “1/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days

   Synonyms: shield

2. governmentA small shield used to charge a larger one.
3. medicineThe pattern of distribution of hair upon the pubic mound.

   The hair becomes darker and coarser during pubic hair stage 3, spreading over the pubic symphysis with gradual progression to a full female escutcheon.

   2013, Jerome F. Strauss III, Robert L. Barbieri, Yen & Jaffe's Reproductive Endocrinology (page 379)

4. A marking upon the back of a cow's udder and the space above it (the perineum), formed by the hair growing upward or outward instead of downward. It was once taken as an index of milking qualities.

   The milk-mirror, or escutcheon, is formed by the hair above the udder, extending upwards between the thighs, […]

   1867, Charles Louis Flint, Milch cows and dairy farming

   Synonyms: milk mirror

5. nauticalThe part of a ship's stern where its name is displayed.
6. A decorative or protective plate or bezel designed to fill the gap between a switch, pipe, valve, control knob, etc., and the surface from which it protrudes.
7. The insignia around a doorknob's exterior hardware or a door lock's cosmetic plate.
8. The depression behind the beak of certain bivalves; the ligamental area.