Meanings
plural mambrinos
- attributiveobsoleteA medieval iron hat.
Even the better class of people put up with very bad hats or mambrinos of all shapes and sizes.
1865, The Eagle: A Magazine Support by Members of St. John's College1 more example
The women, in white smocks and blue petticoats, walked barefoot in the mud and boulders, carrying their yellow boots with red heels in their hands. The long locks of each man falling from beneath his Mambrino hat, looked as if each of them had just taken a bath, but this appearance was due only to the good oiling or greasing of Sunday morning.
1840-45, Roderick Murchison, quoted in 2010, Michael Collie, Science on Four Wheels: The Travels of Roderick Murchison (1840-45)
Origin
In reference to an incident in Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha, where a barber uses his brass basin to protect his hat from the rain; Don Quixote believes this basin to be the enchanted helmet of the Moorish king Mambrino.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
mambrino. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mambrino
“mambrino.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mambrino. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mambrino,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mambrino.
Source: mambrino on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.