Definition of "vaulting-shaft" [vaulting-shaft]

• In architecture, a shaft, almost invariably engaged, rising from a floor or from the capital of a pier below, to receive the spring of a rib of a roof-vault; also, a shorter shaft engaged in the wall and rising from a corbel, from the top of which shaft the rib of the vault springs. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "[58] This term will be used wherever the usual term 'vaulting-shaft' is inapplicable."
• "The south wall is probably original, since (to mention one reason) part of the string-course upon it is worked on the same stone with the vaulting-shaft."
• "Between each of these lower arches is an enriched corbel of Purbeck marble, adorned with foliage in high relief, from which rises the vaulting-shaft, in a group of three, between the arches of the triforium to the base of the clerestory, having a capital of leafage, and from the top of which spring the ribs of the vaulting."