death under shield
Preserved but no longer current.
Death in battle. Her imagination had been familiarised with wild and bloody events . . . and had been trained up to consider an honourable "death under shield" (as that in a field of battle was termed) a desirable termination to the life of a warrior. — SCOTT* The Betrothed, ch. vi.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “death under shield” mean?
Death in battle. Her imagination had been familiarised with wild and bloody events . . . and had been trained up to consider an honourable "death under shield" (as that in a field of battle was termed) a desirable termination to the life of a warrior. — SCOTT* The Betrothed, ch. vi.
Is “death under shield” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.