Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The color red, indicated on a blazon by vertical lines.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In heraldry, the tincture red: in representations without color, as in drawing or engraving, it is indicated by vertical lines drawn close together.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Her.) The tincture red, indicated in seals and engraved figures of escutcheons by parallel vertical lines. Hence, used poetically for a red color or that which is red.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun heraldry The blazoning term for red, e.g. on a coat of arms, typically represented in engraving by vertical parallel lines.
  • adjective heraldry In blazon, of the colour red.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English goules, from Old French, red fur neckpiece, pl. of gole, throat, from Latin gula.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French geule ("animal’s mouth, throat") via Middle French geules. Compare with French gueules and Spanish gules.

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Examples

  • To honor his Mother, Prince William has added a red scallop shell "escallop gules", prominent in the Spencer ancestors' coats of arms.

    Margie Goldsmith: Royal Wedding Fever - Bespoke Style Margie Goldsmith 2011

  • The scribe uses non-standard language to indicate the colors normally, they would be azure, or, and gules, but what he is describing is a sapphire-blue shield cut diagonally by a yellow-topaz band, over which the ruby-red fencepost-like design has been laid.

    Carolyn Vega: An Elizabethan Armorial Carolyn Vega 2011

  • To honor his Mother, Prince William has added a red scallop shell "escallop gules", prominent in the Spencer ancestors' coats of arms.

    Margie Goldsmith: Royal Wedding Fever - Bespoke Style Margie Goldsmith 2011

  • The scribe uses non-standard language to indicate the colors normally, they would be azure, or, and gules, but what he is describing is a sapphire-blue shield cut diagonally by a yellow-topaz band, over which the ruby-red fencepost-like design has been laid.

    Carolyn Vega: An Elizabethan Armorial Carolyn Vega 2011

  • It's like being a medieval knight, but instead of having rampant gules and lion resplendent, you have green for Tehran awareness on a background of gray for Aphasia and Brown for Anti-Tobacco.

    December is Enough Awareness Month Alexandra Petri 2010

  • It's like being a medieval knight, but instead of having rampant gules and lion resplendent, you have green for Tehran awareness on a background of gray for Aphasia and Brown for Anti-Tobacco.

    December is Enough Awareness Month Alexandra Petri 2010

  • The coolest flag, as seen through the eyes of a third grade boy: definitely Mozambique, on which we see an AK-47 vying with a hoe atop a chagrined and retiring book or in heraldic terms, AK-47 rampant with hoe per saltire a gules.

    Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » Flags of all nations 2008

  • “Show him a coat and let him blazon it his own way,” said the Duke; “and if he fails, I promise him that his back shall be gules, azure, and sable.”

    Quentin Durward 2008

  • We bear an eagle or, on a field sable, with a silver crown, beak and claws gules, and a fine motto: NON CECIDIT ANIMUS.

    The Magic Skin 2007

  • Lucien went on, “that I now bear gules, a bull raging argent on a meadow vert.”

    Scenes from a Courtesan's Life 2007

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