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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A horizontal molded projection that crowns or completes a building or wall.
  2. n. The uppermost part of an entablature.
  3. n. The molding at the top of the walls of a room, between the walls and ceiling.
  4. n. An ornamental horizontal molding or frame used to conceal rods, picture hooks, or other devices.
  5. v. To supply, decorate, or finish with or as if with a cornice.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In architecture, any molded projection which crowns or finishes the part to which it is affixed; specifically, the third or uppermost division of an entablature, resting on the frieze. (See column.) When the crowning course of a wall is plain, it is usually called a coping.
  2. n. An ornamental molding, usually of plaster, running round the walls of a room just below the ceiling.
  3. n. In upholstery, an ornamental band or molding which covers and conceals the rod or hooks from which curtains, etc., are hung.
  4. n. A molding or strip of wood, plain or gilded, fastened to the walls of a room, at the proper height from the floor, to serve as a support for picture-hooks; a picture-cornice.
  5. To furnish or finish with a cornice.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The topmost architectural element of a building, projecting forward from the main walls, originally used as a means of directing rainwater away from the building's walls.
  2. n. A decorative element applied at the topmost part of the wall of a room, as with a crown moulding.
  3. n. A decorative element at the topmost portion of certain pieces of furniture, as with a highboy.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Any horizontal, molded or otherwise decorated projection which crowns or finishes the part to which it is affixed.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a decorative framework to conceal curtain fixtures at the top of a window casing
  2. n. a molding at the corner between the ceiling and the top of a wall
  3. v. furnish with a cornice
  4. n. the topmost projecting part of an entablature

Etymologies

  1. Obsolete French, from Italian, possibly from Latin cornīx, cornīc-, crow, from its resemblance to a crow's beak (influenced by Greek korōnis, curved line, flourish).

Examples

  • “Running under the cornice was a faint carved inscription.”

    Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

  • “That clumsy structure called the cornice, for putting up curtains on, has happily given place to the more light and graceful curtain pole.”

    The Ladies Book of Useful Information Compiled from many sources

  • “Above the cornice is a blocking course, surmounted by an attic, with an appropriate cornice and sub-blocking, to add to the height of the building.”

    The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 354, January 31, 1829

  • “Underneath the cornice was a crimson velvet vallance, separated into divisions, the lower portion of each division being rounded with gold, while its centre was decorated with gold, embroidered, and raised ornaments illustrative of the military orders, and of the emblems of the United Kingdom, the Rose, the”

    Coronation Anecdotes

  • “A cornice is the uppermost division of the entablature, the representative of the roof, of an order, consisting of projecting mouldings and blocks, usually divisible into bed-moulding, corona, and gutter.”

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery

  • “Over the middle of the cornice is a seated deity with hands extended, the right over the Eye of Horus, and the left over a pool.”

    Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life

  • “The upper series above the cornice was the more important of the two, on account of the chronological inscriptions which accompanied and explained each medallion.”

    Pagan and Christian Rome

  • “Above the cornice is another monolith, the lower part squared and the upper shaped into a pyramid.”

    History of Phoenicia

  • “The ladder just reached the edge of the cornice, that is to say, the sill of the window; so that, by standing upon the last round but one of the ladder, a man of about the middle height, as the king was, for instance, could easily talk with those who might be in the room.”

    Louise de la Valliere

  • “The ladder just reached the edge of the cornice, that is to say, the sill of the window; so that, by standing upon the last round but one of the ladder, a man of about the middle height, as the king was, for instance, could easily hold a communication with those who might be in the room.”

    The Vicomte de Bragelonne Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After"

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Lists

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  • madmouth We paused before a house that seemed
    A swelling of the ground--
    The roof was scarcely visible--
    The cornice--but a mound

    -Emily Dickinson, from 27 ('Because I could not stop for Death') Jul 17, 2009

‘cornice’ has been looked up 2060 times, loved by 4 people, added to 29 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 11.