chimney piece

American  

noun

1. Chiefly British. mantlepiece.

2. Obsolete. a decoration over a fireplace.

---

Etymology

Origin of chimney piece

First recorded in 1605–15

Example Sentences

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.

From New York Times • Aug. 28, 2019

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.

From New York Times • Apr. 15, 2014

Christie’s judiciously reproduced a photograph taken around 1935 that shows them in situ, on either side of a marble chimney piece designed by Richard Castle, who died in 1751.

From New York Times • Jul. 22, 2011

Sandby, who had designed a marble chimney piece for one of the rooms, was probably commissioned to paint the two views as a celebration of the architectural achievement.

From New York Times • Apr. 16, 2010

Altogether more pleasing is the chimney piece in the parlor at Mount Pleasant.

From The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia by Cousins, Frank