arms

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of arm.

   She carried the heavy boxes in her arms up three flights of stairs.

   The swimmer's arms ached after the long race.

   Note

   The everyday plural stays regular across everything an arm can be: human limbs, an octopus's limbs, the arms of a chair or a pair of spectacles, and inlets reaching off a larger body of water. In someone's arms is the phrase for an embrace. Context separates it from the weapons noun: arms that ache are limbs, while arms that are stockpiled are weapons.

2. 2
   noun

   Weapons and weaponry collectively, especially those used for fighting or war.

   The rebels stockpiled arms in a hidden cellar beneath the church.

   Citizens were forbidden to carry arms inside the palace grounds.

   Similarweapons, weaponry, armaments, firearms, munitions

   Note

   A word that came into English already plural: Middle English armes, through Old French from Latin arma, "weapons". In this sense it takes a plural verb and has no singular, so one weapon is never "an arm". The limbs belong to the limb's plural, a separate word that shares a distant root meaning "to fit together". Set phrases such as bear arms and lay down arms keep this sense in steady use.

3. 3
   noun

   A design created according to heraldic rules, usually shown on a shield, that serves as the official emblem of a family, institution, or state.

   The university's arms feature an open book beneath a silver star.

   Each knight displayed his arms on both shield and banner.

   Similarinsignia, emblem, blazon

   Note

   Heraldry keeps the word plural even for a single design: "the arms of England are…". The design is described in blazon, its own terse idiom: gules, three lions passant gardant or. Strictly, arms are what sits on the shield, and the fuller achievement adds crest, supporters and motto. Arms also travel off the shield. Michael Robbins noted in 1950 that Metropolitan Electric trams bore the three seaxes of the Middlesex arms.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of arm.

   The general arms his troops before any advance into hostile territory.

   The security system arms itself automatically when the last door locks.

   Note

   The verb's -s form covers every sense of arm. A duke arms himself for war, a briefing arms a negotiator with facts, and an alarm arms when it becomes ready to trigger. That last use can stand without an object. The spelling matches the weapons noun, but here a singular subject comes first: she arms, it arms.

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