ARMADA. A Spanish term signifying a royal fleet; it comes from the same root as army. The word armado is used by Shakspeare.
ARMADILLA. A squadron of guarda-costas, which formerly cruized on the coasts of South America, to prevent smuggling.
ARMADOR. A Spanish privateer.
ARMAMENT. A naval or military force equipped for an expedition. The arming of a vessel or place.
ARMAMENTA. The rigging and tackling of an ancient ship. It included shipmen and all the necessary furniture of war.
ARMATÆ. Ancient ships fitted with sails and oars, but which fought under the latter only.
ARM-CHEST. A portable locker on the upper deck or tops for holding arms, and affording a ready supply of cutlasses, pistols, muskets or other weapons.
ARMED. Completely equipped for war.—Armed at all points, covered with armour.—Armed "en flute," see [Flute].—Armed mast, made of more than one tree.—Armed ship, a vessel fitted out by merchants to annoy the enemy, and furnished with letters of marque, and bearing a commission from the Admiralty to carry on warlike proceedings.
ARMED STEM. See [Beak].
ARMILLARY SPHERE. An instrument composed of various circles, to assist the student in gaining a knowledge of the arrangement and motions of the heavenly bodies. A brass armilla tolomæi was one of the instruments supplied to Martin Frobisher in 1576, price £4, 6s. 8d.