chimney piece

noun

1. Chiefly British.,  mantlepiece.

2. Obsolete.,  a decoration over a fireplace.

Word History and Origins

Origin of chimney piece¹

First recorded in 1605–15

Example Sentences

Replacing an existing mantel or chimney piece, or adding one where there was previously none, can immediately change the character of a fireplace.

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Downstairs, amid the stained glass, oak paneling and carved stone chimney piece of a Gothic-style sitting room, was a tangerine foot about the size of a small car.

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Somebody inside the chimney piece said, “Shh!”

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Sitting in the Great Hall of Cliveden House, we took in the ornate oak paneling, Belgian wall tapestries and the 16th-century stone chimney piece, sheltering a roaring fire.

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“Conversion,” he wrote to Edward Sackville-West, “is like stepping across the chimney piece out of a Looking-Glass world, where everything is an absurd caricature, into the real world God made.”

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