arms bearer

arms bearer (plural arms bearers)

1. Alternative form of arms-bearer
   1. One who carries weapons for another.
      • 1996, Gisela Schneider-Herrmann, Edward Herring, The Samnites of the fourth century BC:

        The scene shows two hoplites to the right. A young arms bearer follows his superior.

      • 2003, Susan Freeman, Teaching Hot Topics: Jewish Values, Resources, and Activities, →ISBN:

        Study the passage below in which King Saul, about to lose a battle, asks his arms bearer to kill him.

      • 2007, Sidnie White Crawford, Amnon Ben-Tor, "Up to the gates of Ekron": essays on the archaeology and history of the eastern Mediterranean in honor of Seymour Gitin:

        In this brief article, dedicated in friendship to Sy Gitin, I will discuss the job of the arms bearer and show that, as usual, my wife was right!

   2. An armed fighter.
      • 1996, Pinhas Inbari, The Palestinians between terrorism and statehood, page 239:

        What worried the arms bearers was that Saftawi had not worked out his program with Arafat, but with Egypt and Rabin, and briefed Arafat only later.

      • 2001, Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, →ISBN, page 141:

        He had called on arms bearers to go to the aid of their brethren in the Holy Land and to liberate the Christian holy sites from the heathen.

      • 2011, Irving Louis Horowitz, Culture & Civilization, Volume 4: Religion in the Shadows of Modernity, →ISBN:

        To distinguish them from other arms bearers, soldiers in the narrower sense have only been commonly referred to since the French Revolution.