'ARMED, pp.

1. Furnished with weapons of offense or defense furnished with the means of security fortified, in a moral sense.
2. In heraldry, armed is when the beaks, talons, horns, or teeth of beasts and birds of prey are of a different color from the rest of the body.
3. Capped and cased as the load stone that is set in iron.

An armed ship is one which is taken into the service of government for a particular occasion, and armed like a ship of war.