Definition of tabard in English:

noun

• 1A sleeveless jerkin consisting only of front and back pieces with a hole for the head.

  ‘the caretaker with her pale blue nylon tabard on’

  ‘riders wear the same numbered tabard for each event’

  More example sentences

  • ‘He was wearing boots, blue trousers and a distinctive fluorescent sleeveless tabard.’
  • ‘We tried wearing colourful tabards and polo shirts but no one wanted to go the full way and move into these ‘child friendly’ outfits.’
  • ‘He was wearing a dark coloured bobble hat and a dark jacket with a fluorescent yellow sleeveless tabard over the top.’
  • ‘‘Excuse me,’ I asked a woman in a blue tabard who was carrying two plastic bags and looking as if her life really wasn't worth living.’
  • ‘It provides employment, training and development opportunities for people with disabilities and produces high quality sewn products such as newspaper bags, tabards and waistcoats.’
  • ‘Much support is on offer from the Local Authority in the form of bags, gloves, tabards, litter pickers and disposal.’
  • ‘The men, wearing high-visibility orange jackets or tabards, are reported to have been seen on the track at about 8.25 on the morning of the derailment.’
  • ‘They were shown how to make colourful outfits, tabards, headbands and banners using brightly coloured silks that they painted.’
  • ‘Wear a fluorescent hatband and either waistcoat or tabard.’
  • ‘Ellen pulled her watch out of the belt pouch she wore under the tabard and checked the time.’
  • ‘Wearing smart new tabards, nine children used this week's ‘walking bus’, which meant six fewer cars queuing outside the school gates.’
  • ‘Maybe the youths see the reflective tabards the street cleaners are wearing and move on.’
  • ‘An elderly woman in a tabard appeared from one of the blocks.’
  • ‘He was wearing a distinctive yellow tabard, a yellow hard hat and blue jeans.’
  • ‘I get worried because the steward in his fluorescent green tabard looks worried - its obvious he's going to end up putting his hand on her and he doesn't want to do this.’
  • ‘The teams, dressed in brightly coloured tabards, have become a common feature on the streets of Scotland's cities.’
  • ‘We might need a couple of people in reflective tabards for crossing the road and I have these in my car.’

  1. 1.1historical A coarse sleeveless garment worn as the outer dress of medieval peasants and clerics, or worn as a surcoat over armour.
     ‘white tabards with crosses on the front’
     More example sentences

     • ‘His ceremonial dress included a splendid tabard, bearing the royal coat of arms, along with a sword, black leggings and buckled shoes.’
     • ‘The tabard was sleeveless, showing the white long sleeved shirt that the person wore under it, the end of which tucked away underneath simple iron gauntlets.’
     • ‘Shoppers flocked from far and wide to enjoy the medieval atmosphere, and shop staff and stallholders got into the spirit of the event by donning crested tabards.’
     • ‘Riding to meet them, the tired warriors recognised the device of the silver crown on the stranger's tabards: these were some of Abbot Tathal's men.’
     • ‘A light mace hung at his belt, a sword hilt showed at his left shoulder, and he wore chain mail under a green tabard.’
  2. 1.2A herald's official coat emblazoned with the arms of the sovereign.