Definition of "hypocaust" [hyp•o•caust]

• A space under the floor of an ancient Roman building where heat from a furnace was accumulated to heat a room or a bath. (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.

• "The stube, or stove, of a German inn, derived its name from the great hypocaust, which is always strongly heated to secure the warmth of the apartment in which it is placed."
• "A dozen burials found in the surrounding hypocaust in the nineteenth century would be consistent with a graveyard around a church*."
• "The hypocaust was rebuilt, and part of the suspended floor was found still intact when excavated in 1969."