machicolate

American  

[muh-chik-uh-leyt] / məˈtʃɪk əˌleɪt /

verb (used with object)

machicolated, machicolating

1. to provide with machicolations.

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machicolate British  

/ məˈtʃɪkəʊˌleɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to construct machicolations at the top of (a wall)

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Etymology

Origin of machicolate

First recorded in 1765–75; from Medieval Latin machecoll(um), a Latinization of unattested Middle French machecol literally, “(it) breaks (the) neck” (from the use of such openings to drop projectiles on an ascending attacker; mache, 3rd-person singular present of macher “to beat, break, bruise” (apparently of expressive origin) + col “neck, collar”) + -ate ¹; compare late Middle English machecollyd “machicolated”; see collar

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

machicolated

From machicolated tower, keep, peel and curtain, the nimble Highlanders, torchless, scrambled down, cheering as they came.

From A Prince of Good Fellows by Barr, Robert

A new picture followed, less bright but equally clear, the picture of a long, battlemented rampart, marked with a series of round, machicolated towers.

From The Three Eyes by Leblanc, Maurice

Our camp was pitched on a grassy flat just below the village of Chushar Nango with its fine old ruined tower of stone with machicolated galleries all round it.

From Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 by Howard-Bury, Charles Kenneth

You must all know well the look of the machicolated parapets in mediæval castles.

From Love's Meinie Three Lectures on Greek and English Birds by Ruskin, John

The part of the castle which is kept up is a single range of building; and an elegant machicolated tower, overlooking the whole, still p. 181frowns defiance on the petty innovations beneath. 

From A Tour throughout South Wales and Monmouthshire by Barber, J. T.