Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A bay window projecting from an upper floor, supported from below with a corbel or bracket.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A portico, recess, or small room forming a projection from a room or building, as a hall or chapel, in the form of a large bay or recessed window, and often more richly furnished or more private than the rest of the room or building, formerly used as a boudoir, closet, and separate apartment for various purposes. It projects from the outer face of the wall, being in plan semi-hexagonal, semi-octagonal, or rectangular, etc., and is supported on brackets, corbels, or corbeling. When such a projecting feature rests upon the ground, or directly upon the foundation of the building, it is called a bay-window, or a bow-window. Also called
oriel-window .
Wiktionary
- n. A large polygonal recess in a building, such as a bay window.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A gallery for minstrels.
- n. A small apartment next a hall, where certain persons were accustomed to dine; a sort of recess.
- n. A bay window. See Bay window.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a projecting bay window corbeled or cantilevered out from a wall
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French oriol, porch, from Medieval Latin oriolum.
Examples
“The arch and gateway with the oriel are the oldest parts of the front, and on each side of the arch is a sculptured head, one representing Edward III and the other his queen, Philippa of Hainault.”
“The window is an "oriel" in the Perpendicular style, separated vertically by mullions into three lights in front, with one at each end of the projection, and horizontally by transoms into an upper and lower tier, the former having a trefoil heading to each division.”
“This modern oriel window is part of a renovation to a run-down derelict house in the London Borough of Hackney, and it was designed by Platform 5 Architects.”
“The modern structural glass oriel window is lined with cherry wood and projects into the garden, juxtaposing with the Victorian bay window that projects into the street.”
“Yes, the blueprints might call for flying buttresses and oriel windows, but for now it is only a mess of wheelbarrows, uncut limestone, and piles of sand.”
“At the very top, behind round oriel windows, I can just make out the flicker of lamps.”
Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
“The house was white, three stories with an oriel window on the top floor at the center, flowers in the window, like a set piece in marzipan.”
“The curtains were drawn over the east window looking out over the harbour mouth, but the alcove with the oriel north window was uncurtained.”
“Here an ancient oriel window opened glassless to the sky, and the light of the hunter's moon washed us in silver.”
“At the upper end was an oriel window, but some of the intervals formed by the stone shafts and mullions were blocked up, so that the apartment was very gloomy.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘oriel’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 1112 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Architectual terms
Any words to do with architecture or building materials, to help me write a fictional city for a novel.
welkin, cornice, gargoyle, quatrefoil, frieze, bargeboard, corbel, cupola, belvedere, steeple, widow's walk, minaret and 13 more...
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A Time of Gifts
lambent, gonfalon, ait, eyrie, haberdashery, belfry, capstan, spinney, barbican, hobnail, wharf, waterlogged and 64 more...
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Do you find it funny?
Strange words I come across every now and then.
neornithe, oriel, vitreous, zenith, saunter, ebb, vacillation, arbitrary, lull, nibble, knead, parched and 5 more...
travismcdermott a1400 Prose Life Christ (Pepys) 21 And Jesus was tho a slepe bihinde in the schipp in an oriole. 1440 Promp. Parv. (Harl. 221) 369 Oryel of a wyndowe, cancellus, intendicula. May 28, 2008