helmeted

1. 1
   adjective

   Wearing or equipped with a helmet, or having a head shape or marking that resembles a helmet.

   Every helmeted cyclist in the race followed the safety rules.

   The helmeted guineafowl takes its name from the bony crest on its head.

   Oppositebareheaded, helmetless

   Note

   Built straight from the noun with -ed, the way bearded and booted are, it means having the thing, with no suggestion that anyone put it on. That is why it stretches to animals such as the helmeted guineafowl, whose crest only looks like headgear. It does not take degrees: a rider is helmeted or not, never more helmeted than another.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of helmet.

   The quartermaster helmeted the soldiers as they prepared for battle.

   Once the workers were helmeted and harnessed, the climb began.

   Note

   Behind this form is a transitive verb: someone helmets someone else, or covers a thing as if with a helmet. So the past tense normally takes an object (she helmeted the children), and the participle turns up most often in the passive (once they were helmeted). When no act of fitting is meant, only the state of wearing one, the word is the adjective.

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