lunette

[loo-net]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR lunette ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

any of various objects or spaces of crescentlike or semicircular outline or section.

Architecture. (in the plane of a wall) an area enframed by an arch or vault.

a painting, sculpture, or window filling such an area.

Fortification. a work consisting of a salient angle with two flanks and an open gorge.

Ordnance. a towing ring in the trail plate of a towed vehicle, as a gun carriage.

Ecclesiastical. Luna(def 3).

Origin of lunette

1570–80; < French, diminutive of lune moon < Latin lūna; see -ette

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

Related Words for lunette

bay, aperture, bow, fenestella, oriel, jalousie, dormer, casement, fenestration, fanlight, fenestra, skylight, porthole, lancet, lucarne, mullioned

Examples from the Web for lunette

Historical Examples of lunette

Only on Sans Quartier's cabbage-patch the lunette now stood complete.
Fort Amity
Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
It seems that there was a lunette over the top, containing a Pietà.
Luca Signorelli
Maud Cruttwell
The archbishop fell to the ground, as did the lunette of the monstrance.
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898
Various
This work has a lunette which is generally, and I suppose correctly, ascribed to Gaudenzio.
Ex Voto
Samuel Bulter
The lunette, however, was evidently painted by the Limbourgs.
Chantilly in History and Art
Louise M. Richter

British Dictionary definitions for lunette

lunette

noun

anything that is shaped like a crescent

an oval or circular opening to admit light in a dome

a semicircular panel containing a window, mural, or sculpture

a ring attached to a vehicle, into which a hook is inserted so that it can be towed

a type of fortification like a detached bastion

Also called: lune RC Church a case fitted with a bracket to hold the consecrated host

Word Origin for lunette

C16: from French: crescent, from lune moon, from Latin lūna

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 lunette

1570s, "semi-circular horseshoe," from Middle French lunette (13c.), literally "little moon," diminutive of lune "moon," from Latin luna (see luna). Later applied to a wide range of objects and ornamentations resembling a crescent moon.