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egg and dart

noun Architecture.
  1. a design for enriching an ovolo or echinus, consisting of a closely set, alternating series of oval and pointed forms.
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Origin of egg and dart

First recorded in 1870–75
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for egg and dart

Historical Examples

  • It is a pattern, like the egg-and-dart ornament or the Greek key.

    Alarms and Discursions

    G. K. Chesterton

  • Egg-and-Dart: An ornament consisting of an alternation of flattened balls or bosses with sharp pointed members like arrow heads.

  • It is especially frequently found carved with the egg-and-dart ornament.

  • An egg-and-dart molding extended all around the casing, where the inner door had once hung.

    The Mayor's Wife

    Anna Katherine Green

  • It is quite possible that the egg-and-dart pattern may have had a multiple origin.

    Evolution in Art

    Alfred C. Haddon

British Dictionary definitions for egg and dart

egg and dart

egg and tongue or egg and anchor

noun (in architecture and cabinetwork)
    1. an ornamental moulding in which a half egg shape alternates with a dart, tongue, or anchor shape
    2. (as modifier)egg-and-dart moulding
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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