barrel vault

American  

noun

Architecture.

1. a vault having the form of a very deep arch.

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barrel vault British  

noun

1. Also called: wagon vault.   tunnel vault.  architect a vault in the form of a half cylinder

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Other Word Forms

• barrel-vaulted adjective

Etymology

Origin of barrel vault

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

There is no grand lobby with barrel vault ceiling; instead, the viewer is greeted by the sloping walls and gentle asymmetries of a rough-hewn cave, our most archaic form of shelter.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 29, 2023

Johnson’s heavy-handed barrel vault has been replaced by a delicate glass V-shaped butterfly roof.

From New York Times • Sep. 8, 2022

And “the barrel vault over the library distinctly recalls Stourhead,” an 18th-century Palladian house in the English county of Wiltshire, he noted.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 3, 2022

The colors of this piece are remarkable, from the deep blue of the Madonna’s robes to the alabaster skin of the Christ child, all beneath a golden barrel vault.

From Washington Times • Sep. 21, 2019

The little stair leading up to the gallery is covered with a sloping barrel vault built in segments perpendicular to the slope of the stair and could easily have been built without centering.

From Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Their History and Architecture by Van Millingen, Alexander