gable

[gey-buh l]

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noun Architecture.

the portion of the front or side of a building enclosed by or masking the end of a pitched roof.

a decorative member suggesting a gable, used especially in Gothic architecture.

Also called gable wall. a wall bearing a gable.

Origin of gable

1325–75; Middle English < Old French (of Germanic orig.); cognate with Old Norse gafl; compare Old English gafol, geafel a fork

Related formsga·ble·like, adjective

Gable

[gey-buh l]

noun

(William) Clark,1901–60, U.S. film actor.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for gable

house, ceiling, parapet, covering, shelter, slate, crown, dome, cupola, summit, rafter, canopy, truss, palate, gambrel

Examples from the Web for gable

Contemporary Examples of gable

The trouble with Gable was that he was under contract to MGM.
How 'Gone With the Wind' Got Made
Helen Anders
September 10, 2014
The same violent, primal appeal appeared on-screen and off-screen with Gable.
The Secret of Don Draper's Sex Appeal
Natasha Vargas-Cooper
July 22, 2010
You did not playfully invite Gable in for sex hoping he would be courteous.
The Secret of Don Draper's Sex Appeal
Natasha Vargas-Cooper
July 22, 2010
My mother also liked GWTW because she thought that Gable was “almost as handsome as Duke Ellington.”
Shut Up, Scarlett!
Stanley Crouch
December 19, 2009

Historical Examples of gable

One of the ground-floor windows at the gable end of the house was open.
Casanova's Homecoming
Arthur Schnitzler
The gable walls of the transepts and the western wall are also Turkish.
Byzantine Churches in Constantinople
Alexander Van Millingen
You'll find him lying in the garret at the west end of the gable—drunk.
A Son of Hagar
Sir Hall Caine
If he heard a sigh from the dairy loft, he sat down against the gable and groaned.
The Manxman
Hall Caine
Always used of the gable loft, you know, and the wind above the thatch.
The Manxman
Hall Caine

British Dictionary definitions for gable

gable

noun

the triangular upper part of a wall between the sloping ends of a pitched roof (gable roof)

a triangular ornamental feature in the form of a gable, esp as used over a door or window

the triangular wall on both ends of a gambrel roof

Derived Formsgabled, adjectivegable-like, adjective

Word Origin for gable

C14: Old French gable, probably from Old Norse gafl; related to Old English geafol fork, Old High German gibil gable

Gable

noun

(William) Clark. 1901–60, US film actor. His films include It Happened One Night (1934), San Francisco (1936), Gone with the Wind (1939), Mogambo (1953), and The Misfits (1960)

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

Word Origin and History for gable

mid-14c., from Old French gable "facade, front, gable," from Old Norse gafl "gable, gable-end" (in north of England, the word is probably directly from Norse), probably from Proto-Germanic *gablaz "top of a pitched roof" (cf. Middle Dutch ghevel, Dutch gevel, Old High German gibil, German Geibel, Gothic gibla "gable"), from PIE *ghebhel.

Cognates seem to be words meaning both "fork" (cf. Old English gafol, geafel, Old Saxon gafala, Dutch gaffel, Old High German gabala "pitchfork," German Gabel "fork;" Old Irish gabul "forked twig") and "head" (cf. Old High German gibilla, Old Saxon gibillia "skull").

Possibly the primitive meaning of the words may have been 'top', 'vertex'; this may have given rise to the sense of 'gable', and this latter to the sense of 'fork', a gable being originally formed by two pieces of timber crossed at the top supporting the end of the roof-tree." [OED]

Related: Gabled; gables.