Definition of "cantilever" [can•ti•lev•er]

• A projecting structure, such as a beam, that is supported at one end and carries a load at the other end or along its length. (noun)
• A member, such as a beam, that projects beyond a fulcrum and is supported by a balancing member or a downward force behind the fulcrum. (noun)
• A bracket or block supporting a balcony or cornice. (noun)
• To construct as or in the manner of a cantilever. (verb-transitive)
• To extend outward as or in the manner of a cantilever. (verb-intransitive)

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.

• "The construction of the arched roof is on the plan which engineers know as the cantilever, and not that of the Roman arch."
• "They together form what is called a cantilever; if you lay the letter V on its side, the open end will represent roughly the place where the arch and girders start from the tower."
• "And with the change came the bridging - over period -- the kind of cantilever which hope thrusts out from one side of the bank of the swift-flowing stream of adversity in the belief that somebody on the other side of the chasm will build the other half, and the two form a highway leading to a change of scene and renewed prosperity."