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dado

American  
[dey-doh] / ˈdeɪ doʊ /

noun

  • dadoes,
    plural
  • dados
    plural
  1. Also called dieArchitecture. the part of a pedestal between the base and the cornice or cap.

  2. the lower broad part of an interior wall finished in wallpaper, a fabric, paint, etc.

  3. Carpentry. a groove or rectangular section for receiving the end of a board.


verb (used with object)

  1. to provide with a dado.

verb phrase

  1. dado in to insert (a board or the like) into a dado.

dado British  
/ ˈdeɪdəʊ /

noun

  1. the lower part of an interior wall that is decorated differently from the upper part

  2. architect the part of a pedestal between the base and the cornice

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to provide with a dado

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of dado

1655–65; < Italian: die, cube, pedestal, perhaps < Arabic dad game

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:

Mr MacKellor added: "We weren't expecting to find much, but we did find quite a lot of stone flagged floors, timber dado panelling and working window shutters."

From BBC Dec. 29, 2021

Raposo de Mello, ex-presidente da Anvisa, revelou que ficou atônito diante da mudança de orientação de Adams, dado o apoio de longa data do Advogado-Geral à Anvisa.

From New York Times Sep. 16, 2017

For the interiors he chose bottle green tiles up to a decorative dado of acanthus leaves or pomegranate, details which remain in many of his stations today.

From The Guardian Jul. 26, 2011

Kirstie Allsopp would doubtless get all prissy about the lack of dado rails, but I find it impossible not to warm to a place like that.

From The Guardian Oct. 7, 2010

I see new words that sound cool like dado and kerf and tenon and mortise.

From "Mockingbird" by Kathryn Erskine

Dipping into them revives odd memories — lambrequins and dadoes — gilded rolling-pins, dudes, croquet, the high-wheel bicycle, the game of Boston — a departed age.

From Time Magazine Archive

All the long dadoes are carved elaborately and of exquisite workmanship, and the fretted ceilings are charming in design and colouring.

From Empires and Emperors of Russia, China, Korea, and Japan Notes and Recollections by Monsignor Count Vay de Vaya and Luskod by P?ter Vay

After fitting these, lay out and cut the dadoes for the back of the drawer.

From Handwork in Wood by William Noyes

In this way all the dadoes will be finished at exactly the same depth.

From Handwork in Wood by William Noyes

This double triangle is not only a constant symbol on wedding blankets, but also is found on the dadoes of houses, resembling in design the arrangement of tiles in the Alhambra and other Moorish buildings.

From Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744 by Jesse Walter Fewkes

Inspired by 19th-century Beaux-Arts proportions, the walls have simplified Classical cornices and dados, creating a sense of the grand, domestic proportions that were the original backdrop for many of these canvases decades ago.

From New York Times Jan. 5, 2012

The symbols of his cult were familiar to London's streets and salons—peacock feathers, sunflowers, dados, blue china, long hair, velveteen breeches.

From Time Magazine Archive

Ye fulsome diving dados, would ye were Extinct as your vocabular congener!

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 105, November 18, 1893 by Various

I will confess that it did occur to me at first to put through the whole business at one fell swoop—house, wall-papers, dados, chandeliers, carpets, and curtains.

From The Opinions of a Philosopher by Robert Grant

It is fit for curtain dados or wide borderings.

From Handbook of Embroidery by Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess Alford

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