Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A horizontal structural member, such as a beam or stone, that spans an opening, as between the uprights of a door or window or between two columns or piers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See lingel.
  • noun In architecture, a horizontal piece of timber or stone resting on the jambs of a door or window, or spanning any other open space in a wall or in a columnar construction, and serving to support superincumbent weight.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Arch.) A horizontal member spanning an opening, and carrying the superincumbent weight by means of its strength in resisting crosswise fracture.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun architecture A horizontal structural beam spanning an opening, such as between the uprights of a door or a window, and which supports the wall above.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun horizontal beam used as a finishing piece over a door or window

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, probably alteration of lintier, from Vulgar Latin *līmitāris, of a threshold (meaning influenced by Latin līmen, threshold), from Latin, on a border, from līmes, līmit-, boundary.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lyntel, from Middle French lintel, from Latin limitaris ("indicating a boundary")

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