(maille), a term primarily applied to the meshes or holes in network.

Coat of Mail, called also a habergeon, was a sort of shirt composed of interlaced iron rings, and anciently worn under the waistcoat, to serve as a defence against swords and poniards. There were also gloves of mail.

or Mail, signifies a round ring of iron, and hence the play of pall-mail, from pallia, a ball; and maille, the round ring through which it is to pass.

Maille, in our old writers, a small kind of money. Silver halfpence were likewise termed mailles (9 Henry V.). By indenture in the mint, a pound weight of old sterling silver was to be coined into 360 sterlings or pennies, or 720 mailles or half pennies, or 1440 farthings; and hence was derived the word mail, which is now vulgarly used in Scotland to signify an annual rent.