caisson

American  

[key-suhn, -son] / ˈkeɪ sən, -sɒn /

noun

1. a structure used in underwater work, consisting of an airtight chamber, open at the bottom and containing air under sufficient pressure to exclude the water.

2. a boatlike structure used as a gate for a dock or the like.

3. Nautical.

   1. Also called camel, pontoon.  a float for raising a sunken vessel, sunk beside the vessel, made fast to it, and then pumped out to make it buoyant.

   2. a watertight structure built against a damaged area of a hull to render the hull watertight; cofferdam.

4. a two-wheeled wagon, used for carrying artillery ammunition.

5. an ammunition chest.

6. a wooden chest containing bombs or explosives, used formerly as a mine.

7. Architecture. coffer.

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caisson British  

/ ˈkeɪsən, kəˈsuːn /

noun

1. a watertight chamber open at the bottom and containing air under pressure, used to carry out construction work under water

2. a similar unpressurized chamber

3. a watertight float filled with air, used to raise sunken ships See also camel

4. a watertight structure placed across the entrance of a basin, dry dock, etc, to exclude water from it

5. 1. a box containing explosives, formerly used as a mine

   2. an ammunition chest

   3. a two-wheeled vehicle containing an ammunition chest

6. another name for coffer

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• caissoned
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of caisson

1695–1705; < French, Middle French < Old Provençal, equivalent to caissa box ( see case ²) + -on augmentative suffix

Example Sentences

Caisson horses pull coffins to burials at Arlington, bringing former officers and service members killed in action in America’s wars to their grave sites with haunting uniformity and precision.

From Washington Post • Feb. 21, 2016

She tossed her purse to a surprised cop, waved away courtiers clucking in alarm, waded ankle-deep in the construction-site muck to reach the ladder and clamber to the top of Caisson 7. 20,000 Concrete Piles.

From Time Magazine Archive

The scattered cheering of the crowd rose to a roar, and through it sounded the bouncing blasts of the field-artillery march�The Caisson Song.

From Time Magazine Archive

Precisely at the moment of the tide's turn, when the water was completely still, 25 workmen aboard Caisson 7 frantically twirled at the watercocks.

From Time Magazine Archive

Caisson is also a vessel fitted with valves, to act instead of gates for a dry dock.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir