Definition of "machicolation" []

• A projecting gallery at the top of a castle wall, supported by a row of corbeled arches and having openings in the floor through which stones and boiling liquids could be dropped on attackers. (noun)
• One of these openings. (noun)
• A row of small corbeled arches used as an ornamental architectural feature. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Of course not, just look at those gigantic windows and lack of machicolation! posted by Carolingian @ 8:14 PM"
• "This wooden story probably formed the bell chamber; the machicolation-like supports still existed in 1781."
• "Tall towers, exactly square and equally bare of carving or machicolation, stood at intervals along this forbidding defence and flanked its curtain."