plinth

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It represents "a British lion grieving over the ashes of a British hero," and on the plinth is the inscription, "Respect the ashes of the brave Footnote 7: Virgil, 'Eclogues', iii.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun A block or slab on which a pedestal, column, or statue is placed.
  2. noun The base block at the intersection of the baseboard and the vertical trim around an opening.
  3. noun A continuous course of stones supporting a wall. Also called plinth course.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

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

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Examples (50)

  • When you say plinth, your lips first press together gently, then part; the tongue peeks seductively out from under the teeth, then the ‘th’ sound is softly breathed through the invitingly open lips.
  • Eventually we reach our actual destination, a field where a group of 12 women are carrying baskets filled with earth and mud from the edge of a field to a destroyed homestead where a family is using the mud to rebuild the foundation - the "plinth" - of their home. —  Nicholas D. Kristof
  • However, the statue was only completed a month before his death and the plinth, which is made of Craigleith sandstone, was not ready until after his death in February 1685.
  • Raised on a jade plinth, a low round pillar stood directly in front of the rose-red curtains that were drawn across the sanctuary space, and on the top of the pillar a bronze jar held one scented stick, that burned slowly, like a winking, drowsy eye, its slow spiral of incense creeping up into the air and losing itself in the high arches of the pointed roof. —  The Pointing Man A Burmese Mystery
  • All I saw was a surge of white-hot metal pouring over the plinth, a glimpse of Salad's inscription, 'To the Eternal Memory of the Justice of the People,' ere the stone base itself cracked and powdered into finest lime. —  A Diversity of Creatures
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French plinthe, from Latin plinthus, from Greek plinthos, tile, plinth.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French plinths = Spanish plinto = Portuguese plintho = Italian plinto, from Latin plinthus, from Greek πλίνθος, a brick, tile, plinth: see flint.
 

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/plɪnθ/
by American Heritage

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