crenel
Americannoun
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any of the open spaces between the merlons of a battlement.
-
a crenature.
verb (used with object)
noun
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any of a set of openings formed in the top of a wall or parapet and having slanting sides, as in a battlement
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another name for crenation
Etymology
Origin of crenel
1475–85; earlier creneul, crennel < Middle French, Old French, apparently diminutive of cren notch (attested since the 15th century), Old French cran, of uncertain origin; crenate, cranny
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.
“The crenels are all flat now. It’s slippy and feels dangerous when I walk on it.”
From Time
Drifts climbed the walls and filled the crenels along the battlements, white blankets covered every roof, tents sagged beneath the weight.
From Literature
On the inside of the rampart and in the wide crenel between two upthrust merlons.
From Literature
Over it there is sprung a high-arched, rough stone bridge, with crenelled walls, quite as artistic in its way as may be found in pictures of ancient English brook-crossings.
From Project Gutenberg
Blood and torn flesh spattered over those nearest him, and the boy, doubling up as if made of rags, rolled through the crenel and fell outside the wall.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
