Definition of "finial" [fin•i•al]

• Architecture A sculptured ornament, often in the shape of a leaf or flower, at the top of a gable, pinnacle, or similar structure. (noun)
• An ornamental terminating part, as on a post or piece of furniture. (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.

• "Twentieth-century blue-blood decorator Sister Parish, America's version of Ms. Castaing, was asked once why she had put a worthless giltwood curtain finial atop a lovely antique clock in her entrance hall."
• "These desks evidently stood in the old library against the shafts of the roof, for one of the ends has been hollowed out in each to receive the shaft; and the finial, which is left plain on that side, is bent over slightly, to admit it under the brace (fig. 39)."
• "On a crystal goddess's head, long described as a finial for a staff, she found a loop that suggests that the carving was actually a pendant."