| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| arm2 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  ärm |
| NOUN: | 1. A weapon, especially a firearm: troops bearing arms; ICBMs, bombs, and other nuclear arms. 2. A branch of a military force: infantry, armor, and other combat arms. 3. arms a. Warfare: a call to arms against the invaders. b. Military service: several million volunteers under arms; the profession of arms. 4. arms a. Heraldry Bearings. b. Insignia, as of a state, an official, a family, or an organization. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: armed, arm·ing, arms
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To supply or equip oneself with weaponry. 2. To prepare oneself for warfare or conflict. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To equip with weapons: armed themselves with loaded pistols; arm a missile with a warhead; arm a nation for war. 2. To equip with what is needed for effective action: tax advisers who were armed with the latest forms. 3. To provide with something that strengthens or protects: a space reentry vehicle that was armed with a ceramic shield. 4. To prepare (a weapon) for use or operation, as by releasing a safety device. | | IDIOM: | up in arms Extremely upset; indignant. | | ETYMOLOGY: | From Middle English armes, weapons, from Old French, pl. of arme, weapon, from Latin arma, weapons. See ar- in Appendix I. V., from Middle English armen, from Old French armer, from Latin arm re, from arma. | | OTHER FORMS: | armed (ärmd) —ADJECTIVE
arm er —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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