steel helmetn.
1. A helmet made of steel (or other metal), worn as a form of protection in conditions of war.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > armour > helmet > [noun] > steel helmet
tin hat1799
steel helmet1916
battle bowler1925
tin helmet1934
1916 R. Asquith Let. 23 May (1980) iv. 263 One fearful addition to the honours of War since I have been away is the steel helmet which we all have to wear now, when in the shell area.
1940 War Illustr. 5 Jan. 563/1 It was not until February 1916 that the first steel helmets were issued to the British troops in the last war, but in this war they are an essential part not only of the soldiers' equipment but of that of the police, the A.F.S. and A.R.P. workers.
1978 A. Price '44 Vintage v. 52 Knitted cap-comforters instead of berets or steel helmets.
2. (With capital initials.) [translating German Stahlhelm n.] An organization, founded in 1918 by F. Seldte, of German ex-service men (and others, from 1924) drawn mainly from the Nationalist Party and having a strong conservative bias; a member of this.The organization was dissolved in 1935, and refounded under the Federal Republic in 1951.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warriors collectively > paramilitary groups spec. > [noun]
U.V.F.1913
squadra1922
Sturmabteilung1923
steel helmet1925
Schutzbund1927
new guard1932
Silver Shirts1934
Stern gang1944
Umkhonto we Sizwe1961
nahal1963
MK1964
Provisional I.R.A.1970
Black September1971
Red Brigade1971
Black Septembrist1972
U.D.A.1972
Symbionese Liberation Army1973
U.F.F.1973
Amal1976
death squad1976
INLA1979
1925 Spectator 28 Mar. 487/1 How could he really fail to stand for monarchy when he is championed by such societies as the ‘Steel Helmet League’ and the ‘Front Fighters’?
1926 Times 25 May 14/3 The Nationalist ‘Steel Helmet’ organization.
1926 Times 25 May 14/3 Most of the ‘Steel Helmets’ wore iron crosses.
1927 Times 13/2 The chief task of the Steel Helmet League was the preservation of the soldierly spirit in the nation and the preparedness to bear arms.
1932 H. R. Knickerbocker Germany —Fascist or Soviet? 137 The four militant organizations are the Republican Reichsbanner, the National Socialist Storm Troops, the Conservative Steel Helmets, and the Communist Red Front.
1932 J. H. Kraus Crisis of German Democracy 7 ‘The National Opposition’... Its chief representatives are the National Socialists, the German National Party (Hugenberg party), and, thirdly, the Steelhelmets.
1933 E. A. Mowrer Germany puts Clock Back 94 The Steel Helmet, or Confederation of Front-line Soldiers, the most respectable of the private armies, was founded on Christmas Day, 1918.
1983 C. McCarry Last Supper 32 A Steel Helmet, wearing two Iron Crosses on his civilian jacket..seized the weedy young man.
Derivatives
steel-ˈhelmeted adj. wearing a steel helmet.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > armour > helmet > [adjective] > wearing steel helmet
tin-hatted1918
steel-helmeted1926
tin-helmeted1939
1926 Brit. Worker 10 May 1/3 Thus all the display of steel-helmeted troops, all the tearing about of motor-cars filled with special constables..have failed of their object.
1977 N. Sahgal Situation in New Delhi xvi. 159 One of the students informed him it was the police or perhaps the army—many were steel-helmeted and the boy could not tell.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1916