flying buttress
a segmental arch transmitting an outward and downward thrust to a solid buttress that through its inertia transforms the thrust into a vertical one.
Origin of flying buttress
1Words Nearby flying buttress
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use flying buttress in a sentence
The side aisles were covered by a quarter-barrel vaulting that serves the purpose of a continuous flying buttress.
How France Built Her Cathedrals | Elizabeth Boyle O'ReillyBeyond, one traced the outlines of pinnacle and flying buttress, slanting roof and beautiful windows.
The Argosy | VariousA, used for resisting the thrust of an arch, or for ornamentation; B, a flying buttress.
Carpentry for Boys | J. S. ZerbeThe flying buttress, every day and night, Continues in his long, unwearied flight.
A Phenomenal Fauna | Carolyn WellsEvery support seemed an accidental and fantastic support; every buttress was a flying buttress.
Orthodoxy | G. K. Chesterton
British Dictionary definitions for flying buttress
a buttress supporting a wall or other structure by an arch or part of an arch that transmits the thrust outwards and downwards: Also called: arc-boutant
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for flying buttress
An external, arched support for the wall of a church or other building. Flying buttresses were used in many Gothic cathedrals (see also cathedral); they enabled builders to put up very tall but comparatively thin stone walls, so that much of the wall space could be filled with stained-glass windows. The cathedrals of Chartres and Notre Dame de Paris were built with flying buttresses.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Browse