Riband cockade. The cockades which are given to recruits, and is commonly called the colors.
RIBAUDE, Fr. Irregular, noisy, ill-mannered. This term is likewise used as a substantive, viz.
Un Ribaud, Fr. A noisy, ill-mannered fellow. It is an old French word, which at present is seldom spoken in the polished circles of life. In former times, as late indeed as during the reign of Philip Augustus, king of France, it was current without carrying along with it any particular reproach or mark of infamy. The foot guards, who did duty at the palace, were generally called ribauds, from the looseness of their morals; which by degrees grew so very corrupt, that the term, (harmless perhaps at first) was insensibly applied to persons guilty of dishonorable acts. Hence pick-pockets, thieves, cheats, &c. were called ribauds. On which account the provost of the hotel or town house in Paris, was popularly stiled roi des ribands, or provost of ribauds. This phrase prevailed until the reign of Charles the VIth.
Ribaud, Fr. adj. likewise means lewd, debauched, &c.
| Un homme Ribaud, | - | |
| Une femme Ribaude, |
Fr. A licentious man; a licentious woman.
RIBAUDEQUIN, Fr. A warlike machine or instrument, which the French anciently used. It was made in the form of a bow, containing twelve or fifteen feet in its curve, and was fixed upon the wall of a fortified town, for the purpose of casting out a prodigious javelin, which sometimes killed several men at once.
According to Monstrelet, a French writer, ribaudequin, or ribauderin, signified a sort of garment which was worn by the soldiers when they took the field.
RIBLEURS, Fr. Vagabonds, debauched fellows that run about the streets, or spend their nights in disorderly houses. Soldiers who give themselves up to pillage &c. in war time, are likewise called ribleurs, by way of reproach.
RIBLER, Fr. To ramble, &c. was formerly the verb, and riblerie, the act of rambling, &c. the substantive. Both terms are now obsolete, except among the lower orders.