cantilever
Americannoun
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any rigid structural member projecting from a vertical support, especially one in which the projection is great in relation to the depth, so that the upper part is in tension and the lower part in compression.
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Building Trades, Civil Engineering. any rigid construction extending horizontally well beyond its vertical support, used as a structural element of a bridge cantilever bridge, building foundation, etc.
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Aeronautics. a form of wing construction in which no external bracing is used.
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Architecture. a bracket for supporting a balcony, cornice, etc.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
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a beam, girder, or structural framework that is fixed at one end and is free at the other
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( as modifier )
a cantilever wing
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a wing or tailplane of an aircraft that has no external bracing or support
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a part of a beam or a structure projecting outwards beyond its support
verb
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(tr) to construct (a building member, beam, etc) so that it is fixed at one end only
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(intr) to project like a cantilever
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cantileversimple
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cantileverssimple
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have cantileveredperfect
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has cantileveredperfect
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am cantileveringprogressive
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are cantileveringprogressive
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is cantileveringprogressive
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have been cantileveringperfect progressive
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has been cantileveringperfect progressive
Past
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cantileveredsimple
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had cantileveredperfect
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was cantileveringprogressive
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were cantileveringprogressive
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had been cantileveringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cantilever
Explanation
A cantilever is a girder or beam that supports a bridge or another large structure. Cantilevers are attached only at one end, like a rigid diving board. Structures that stick out sideways from a vertical support are cantilevers (hold your arm straight out from your body and it becomes a kind of cantilever). Engineers construct bridges using cantilevers, balancing them with counterweights or reinforcing them with girders and trusses. Cantilever bridges were originally called cantlapper bridges—from cant, or "slope," eventually combined with lever, from the Latin levare, "to raise."
Vocabulary lists containing cantilever
Built To Last: Architectural Parlance
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Structural Engineering
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Civil Engineering
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I love this house at 10 o’clock because of the cantilever and the shadows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
Giant cantilever cranes date from the beginning of the 20th Century, when Scotland led the world in shipbuilding and engineering.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026
When the cantilever is placed on one of the nanoparticles, a current is passed through its tip to measure the conductivity.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 12, 2024
Columns sway back and forth, like a cantilever swing, creating ample space for large groups to walk through.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 18, 2023
The channel span rests on cast steel rockers on one end, which are carried by a shelf on the cantilever panel.
From Third Biennial Report of the Oregon State Highway Commission Covering the Period December 1st, 1916 to November 30th, 1918 by Benson, S.
Rapidly-sinking rays streaming through the gaps of the cantilevers onto the pitch.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2024
Where the top level extends cantilevers out to create a covered porch, it is supported by a pair of tree trunks that Austin’s builder, Kaplan Homes, found washed up on the beach.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 7, 2024
Saarinen’s concrete structure, with its soaring, winglike vaulted roof, its huge fields of glass, and its thrilling interior curves, cantilevers and airy mezzanines, is one of the great buildings of the past century.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 12, 2019
BIG says the disused cantilevers could be turned into more parkland or parking lots, revenue-generating shops or apartments, whatever Brooklynites wanted.
From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2019
From the tops of these piers large steel cantilevers were erected projecting over the crown of the tunnel, and on these steel girders were fixed and the building constructed upon them.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 6 "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" by Various
Just after sundown, I arrived at the 602-room Fairmont Monte Carlo, cantilevered over the Mediterranean for superb sea views.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
It shows the home at night, with two young women sitting inside in a cantilevered corner, its floor-to-ceiling windows revealing the lights of the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025
In this manner, the cantilevered base of the building need not carry any load beyond the first eight stories, a solution that would make the base lighter and cheaper.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
Network Rail previously worked with Shard developers Sellar on a £1.5bn scheme that proposed to partially demolish the Victorian station and build a new multi-storey tower cantilevered above a neighbouring Grade II* listed former hotel.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2025
You are looking at the only cantilevered structure of its kind on earth.
From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd
Atop it was her sewing machine, jars of buttons, a wooden box that unfolded, cantilevering out to reveal spools of thread.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 3, 2021
Museum and designer retreated from the idea of cantilevering a wing over the principal tar pool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2019
“His body is cantilevering, but he’s fortunate at one point to get his left foot on the ground to brace against the momentum of the football striking his hand.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2014
He was creative from the time he was cantilevering building blocks.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 10, 2011
It's a taxidermist's dream, with massive forelegs and a rack that should need cantilevering.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
