chastity belt

chastity +‎ belt

chastity belt (plural chastity belts)

1. A belt-like garment, designed to be worn over the genitals and locked to prevent sexual intercourse, typically for long periods of time, to maintain chastity, prevent masturbation, or to enforce BDSM submission.

   Hypernym: chastity device

   Coordinate term: chastity cage

   • 1910 December 3, “Review of The Illustrated Guide to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, England”, in The British Medical Journal, number 2605, →ISSN, →JSTOR, page 1778:

     He can inspect the Historical Cabinet, which includes a segment of Napoleon’s intestine—now believed to be perfectly genuine—a chastity belt, the mummy of the first Mrs. Van Butchell, and pieces of the skin of England's foes once nailed to the doors of parish churches.

   • 1931, Eric John Dingwall, The Girdle of Chastity: A Medico-historical Study‎, London: George Routledge & Sons, retrieved 7 January 2021, page 10:

     […] the custom [of female infibulation], I think, does not appear in Greek or Roman life, and the virgin girdles of antiquity have nothing in common with the chastity belts, although certain of the customs clustering around the use of these sashes suggest ideas allied to the notion of a forcible closure of the private parts.

   • 1931, Eric John Dingwall, The Girdle of Chastity: A Medico-historical Study‎, London: George Routledge & Sons, retrieved 7 January 2021, page 164:

     There can be little doubt that the imposition of chastity belts upon women in order to allay masculine jealousy, and the operation of infibulation upon male slaves by their mistresses for the sake of lust, are two of the most remarkable customs ever devised by mankind in its efforts to control the intricacies of the erotic life.

2. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (figurative) For a woman, refusal to have sex.