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Definition of "flying buttress" [flying buttress]

  • An arched masonry support serving to bear thrust, as from a roof or vault, away from a main structure to an outer pier or buttress. Also called arc-boutant. (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.

Use "flying buttress" in a sentence
  • "The Rome Plow knocked out the first two flying buttress roots easy, but got wedged like an axe in the third, tilted."
  • "At their hands the Lombard pilaster-strip became at once a functional buttress instead of a decorative adjunct, while the successive steps in the evolution of the flying buttress remain on record and are peculiarly interesting."
  • "Noyon followed immediately, and here, it is maintained, the flying buttress for the first time emerged through the roof, displaying in logical fashion the system of construction, and at the same time bringing the abutment above the springing of the vault, where the greatest thrust actually occurred, while permitting the lowering of the triforium roof so that the clerestory window might be given great height and brought into better proportion with the arcade and triforium."
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