oriflamme

plural oriflammes · alternative auriflamme · alternative oriflamb

1. historicalThe red silk banner of St Denis, which the abbot of St Denis gave to French kings as they rode to war in the Middle Ages.

   The white banner with the golden lilies of France has been unfurled. The oriflamme has been presented to the virginal bride who stands before the altar in the forest chapel.

   1988, Robert Irwin, The Mysteries of Algiers, Dedalus, published 1993, page 58

2. figurativelyAny banner, idea or principle which serves as a rallying point for those involved in a struggle.

   And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre.

   1824, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Ivry

   1 more example

   Please remember that the vocabulary of our readers isn’t very extensive, so don’t go using words like ‘oriflamme’ or ‘inelectable’.

   [1963, Anthony Burgess, Inside Mr Enderby

3. literarySomething resembling the banner of St Denis; a bright, shining object.

   On the other side Mailey's yellow beard flamed like an oriflamme.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

   3 more examples

   This is that famed Martial law, with its Red Flag, its 'Drapeau Rouge:' in virtue of which Mayor Bailly, or any Mayor, has but henceforth to hang out that new Oriflamme of his; then to read or mumble something about the King's peace; and, after certain pauses, serve any undispersing Assemblage with musket-shot....

   1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)

   Lucette trotted into the room with a child's pink, stiff-bagged butterfly-net in her little fist, like an oriflamme.

   1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Penguin, published 2011, page 96

   Open spaces made visible the approach to almost every one of them, or else a splendid mass of foliage stood out before it like an oriflamme.

   1992, Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott-Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, edited by D.J. Enright, Swann's Way, Folio Society, published 2005, page 417