lintel

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“
On the lintel is the stationmaster's name painted in small white letters, like the name of the landlord over the doorway of an inn.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. 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.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Quickly he looked above the lintel, and for the place behind the plaster where the stonework had been loosened to insert the jewel and only lightly replaced. —  EQMM, July 2005
  • He tapped the accelerator to bump him over the lintel, then drove slowly across a streaked marble floor. —  ARTEMIS FOWL is a child prodigy from Ireland who has dedicated his brilliant mind to criminal activities
  • The main door was set beneath a stone lintel, and the many windows were functional, displaying no coloured glass, no leaded figures, no ornamentation at all. —  David A
  • On the lintel were carved a sun, a crescent moon, several stars, and other, more obscure symbols. —  AnalogSFF,May2006
  • We've got to free the last lintel--to take the stress off the roof. —  AnalogSFF,June2006
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This word has been looked up 111 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. 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.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English lintel, lyntell, from Old French lintel, French linteau = Spanish lintel, dintel, from Middle Latin lintellus, head-piece of a door or window, for *limitellus, diminutive of Latin limes (limit-), a boundary, border (cf. limen, a threshold): see limit. Cf. lintern.
 

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/ˈlɪntɛl/
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