flying buttress


nounArchitecture.
  1. 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

1
First recorded in 1660–70

Words 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'Reilly
  • Beyond, one traced the outlines of pinnacle and flying buttress, slanting roof and beautiful windows.

    The Argosy | Various
  • A, used for resisting the thrust of an arch, or for ornamentation; B, a flying buttress.

    Carpentry for Boys | J. S. Zerbe
  • The flying buttress, every day and night, Continues in his long, unwearied flight.

    A Phenomenal Fauna | Carolyn Wells
  • Every support seemed an accidental and fantastic support; every buttress was a flying buttress.

    Orthodoxy | G. K. Chesterton

British Dictionary definitions for flying buttress

flying buttress

noun
  1. 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

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.