lintel
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of lintel
1350–1400; Middle English lyntel < Middle French lintel, dissimilated variant of *linter < Latin līmitāris originally, belonging to or indicating a boundary; later taken as synonym of līmināris originally, of the threshold. See limit, -ar 1
Explanation
In architecture, a lintel is the beam or other support at the top of a door or window. Most lintels are decorative as well as providing structural support. A lintel can be purely ornamental, just an attractive horizontal flourish at the top of a door, or it can be a wood or metal support piece that also looks nice. Your fireplace might be topped by a stone lintel, and you might see a much older lintel in ancient Roman ruins, at the top of two massive pillars. In Old French, lintel means "threshold," from the Latin word limitaris, "bordering."
Vocabulary lists containing lintel
Built To Last: Architectural Parlance
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Learning Down The House: Parts of Your Home
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Unit 4: Powerful Openings
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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.
Finding a Miyake event in wood from a Mesoamerican structure—such as a lintel in the Maya temple Tikal in Guatemala, whose construction is recorded in the Long Count—would settle the matter.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 13, 2023
We ducked under a timber lintel and stepped inside.
From New York Times • Apr. 20, 2022
I immediately banged my head on the lintel above the tiny front door of the 400-year-old cottage.
From Washington Post • Sep. 20, 2018
I’ve known landlords to be held horizontally over the front edge of the sway, with their feet only just touching the lintel of the pub’s doorframe, stretching for the hood.
From The Guardian • Apr. 30, 2018
He was tall enough to scrape the door’s lintel, his slate-blue eyes set in a long, lean face.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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.
