helmet

(hel’met), n. [= D. helmet, Yet are they [ships] turned about with a very small helm, met, elmet, healmet, heaumet, hiawmet, dim. o whithersoever the governor listeth. Jas, iii. 4, heaume, ete., EK. helm =D. helm, ete.: see heln?.] O where will I get a gude sailor, To take my helm in hand? 1. A defensive cover for the head. The term is Sir Patrick Spens (Child’s Ballads, ITI, 154). applied in general to all defensive head-coverings except the slightest, such as the skull-cap, the secret, the wire In gallant trim the gilded ve el goes; hat, etc., and also Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm. the camail or coif. Gray, The Bard, ii. 2. Specifically — (a) Henee—3. The place or post of direction or Milit.: (1) In ancient and me die management: as, to take the helm of affairs. val armor, a cap Men of ability and experience in great affairs, who have of metal worn to been long at the helm. Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, I. vii. protect the head from sword-cuts I then sat at the helm of the commonwealth, and shared and spear-thrusts. in the direction of its most important motions. Such a _ helmet W. Melmoth, tr. of Cicero, xi. usually guarded There are not wanting persons at the helm, friends to the nape of the the progre of this spirit. neck and sides of Jefferson, Correspondence, II. 212. the face by means of hinged pieces Down with the helm, the order to push the helm down or sliding splints to the lee side of the ship, in order to put the ship about or (see couvre-nuque, to lay her to windward. Helm amidships, or right the Jace-guard, cheekhelm, the order to keep the rudder in a line with the keel. Ancient Helmets. piece), and to a —Helm’s alee! See alee.— Port the helm, the order a, 6, Corinthian type: a, as worn in fight; certain extent the to put the helm aport.— Shift the helm, the order to %, raised for comfort. c, Attic type (archaic). face by means of a put the helm from starboard to port, or the reverse.— a, Roman form. nasal, either fixed Starboard the helm, the order to put the helm to the or movable, a beaver, a projecting vizor, or the like. The starboard or right side.—To ease the helm, to let the only helmets which covered the head and face completely helm come a little amidships so as to relieve the strain on were those worn by Roman gladiators of certain cla es, the rudder.—To feel the helm. See fee/1.—To put the and by medieval heavy-armed horsemen between the behelm down, to put the helm alee in order to turn the ship ginning of the thirteenth and the middle of the sixteenth to windward.— Up with the helm, the order to put the helm aweather.—Weather helm, the condition of the helm when kept a little to windward, or aweather, in order to prevent the ship’s head from coming up in the wind while sailing close-hauled. helm! (helm), v.¢. [