corbel
Americannoun
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any bracket, especially one of brick or stone, usually of slight extent.
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a short horizontal timber supporting a girder.
verb (used with object)
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to set (bricks, stones, etc.) so as to form a corbel or corbels (usually followed byout ).
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to support by means of a corbel or corbels.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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corbelsimple
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corbelssimple
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have corbeledperfect
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have corbelledperfect
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has corbeledperfect
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has corbelledperfect
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am corbelingprogressive
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am corbellingprogressive
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are corbelingprogressive
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are corbellingprogressive
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is corbelingprogressive
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is corbellingprogressive
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have been corbelingperfect progressive
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have been corbellingperfect progressive
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has been corbelingperfect progressive
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has been corbellingperfect progressive
Past
-
corbeledsimple
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corbelledsimple
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had corbeledperfect
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had corbelledperfect
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was corbelingprogressive
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was corbellingprogressive
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were corbelingprogressive
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were corbellingprogressive
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had been corbelingperfect progressive
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had been corbellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of corbel
1375–1425; late Middle English < Middle French < Medieval Latin corvellus, equivalent to Latin corv ( us ) raven 1 + -ellus diminutive suffix
Vocabulary lists containing corbel
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:
Though it needed considerable love, he knew, largely thanks to an original marble fireplace with neo-Classical corbel detailing and an unusual wrought-iron spiral staircase, that it was where he wanted to be.
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2022
At 11 inches tall, the classic creature can serve as an indoor wall corbel or bookend.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2021
“Aggressive excavation of concrete at the severely deteriorated pool corbel could affect the stability of the remaining adjacent concrete construction,” Morabito and his colleagues wrote.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 2, 2021
In the largest houses, the stairwells are joiner’s poems of raking architrave, barley twist, corbel and column-newel.
From New York Times ● Oct. 15, 2014
Outside, the chancel has good buttresses at the angles, and is crowned by that curious boat-like corbel table seen at Santarem and by a row of pyramidal battlements.
From Portuguese Architecture by Watson, Walter Crum
The door of 10 Downing Street was copied from the original and is enclosed within a composite fibreglass painted architrave "flanked by scrolled acanthus leaf corbels" and surrounded by black-painted iron railings.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2023
Longstaffe-Gowan also installed sculptures from Morgan’s collection, including a Roman sarcophagus, a Roman funerary stele and two Renaissance corbels, in the garden.
From New York Times ● Jun. 10, 2022
Engravings can be admired on corbels and finials across the UK, remnants of a time when keeping up with the neighbours meant throwing lavish parties and displaying one's riches.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2020
Features: The 1908 semidetached Victorian rowhouse on Capitol Hill has high ceilings, decorative crown molding, ornate fireplace mantels, elegant corbels and stylish wainscoting.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 18, 2017
He studied one by one the grotesque carvings of dwarfs that decorated the roof bosses, and the corbels finishing the doorway.
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
Above these windows, the tower, hitherto square, becomes gradually octagonal, springing from corbeled heads; till terminated by four octagonal pinnacles, and crowned by an octagonal moulded battlement.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 20, No. 558, July 21, 1832 by Various
The large, open fireplace is built of clinker brick, and its facings extend from the floor to the ceiling; it has a wooden shelf supported on corbeled brackets.
From Three Acres and Liberty by Hall, Bolton
We descended alone into the pharaoh’s burial chamber, where the twins’ voices echoed off the high corbelled ceiling.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 26, 2019
I arrived in a large tomb chamber with a soaring corbelled ceiling.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 2, 2015
The side walls are divided into five spaces by piers; an arched corbelled cornice terminating in mouldings runs along them, and returns up the slope of the east wall.
From The Shores of the Adriatic The Austrian Side, The Küstenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia by Jackson, F. Hamilton (Frederick Hamilton)
A richly corbelled cornice crowns the structure, above which a spire was projected by Giotto, but never carried out.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2 "Camorra" to "Cape Colony" by Various
Immediately above the carving, at the intersection of the main arches, is a corbelled head, from which rises a triple vaulting-shaft with foliated capitals, on a line with the base of the clerestory.
From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Salisbury A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the See of Sarum by White, Gleeson
Or when they are not corbeling they may be toothing.
From Love Conquers All by Williams, Gluyas
The second year included rowlock and bonded segmental arches; blocking, toothing, and corbeling; building and bonding of vaulted walls; polygonal and circular walls, piers and chimneys; fire-places and flues.
From One Way Out A Middle-class New-Englander Emigrates to America by Carleton, William
Rain or shine, hot or cold, you will find them corbeling around like Trojans.
From Love Conquers All by Williams, Gluyas
The chambers are built of upright slabs and are roofed by corbelling.
From Rough Stone Monuments and Their Builders by Peet, T. Eric (Thomas Eric)
The roof is formed by corbelling the walls and finishing off with slabs laid across.
From Rough Stone Monuments and Their Builders by Peet, T. Eric (Thomas Eric)
In shape it is a half-octagon set diagonally, and is upheld by circular corbelling.
From Portuguese Architecture by Watson, Walter Crum
Two courses of corbelling also appeared on the two chimneys located at the back and in the center section of the building.
From The Fairfax County Courthouse by Netherton, Ross De Witt
It is roofed by the successive overlapping or corbelling of the upper courses.
From Rough Stone Monuments and Their Builders by Peet, T. Eric (Thomas Eric)
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.
