spandrel

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"I'm afraid I don't know what a spandrel is," Christopher announced with appealing frankness.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun The roughly triangular space between the left or right exterior curve of an arch and the rectangular framework surrounding it.
  2. noun The space between two arches and a horizontal molding or cornice above them.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

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

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Examples (50)

  • These form an integral part of the chamber drama of the building -- pronounced piers define the four second story windows, which are topped by herringbone brickwork in the upper spandrel areas. —  Ecology of Absence
  • North Carolina State University civil engineering Professor Sami Rizkalla says the new spandrel design simplifies construction for precast concrete producers, noting that in addition to using less steel, the new design cuts labor and manufacturing time in half -- significantly decreasing costs. —  Breaking News - The Post Chronicle
  • The commissioners would like to turn it into a recreational and historical attraction and preserve one of a handful of open spandrel arch bridges left in the state. —  news | LD | http://www.the-dispatch.com
  • For in the half-spandrel wall between the first arch and the bank they might have spied a small window looking down on the sullen, silent gloom, foam-flecked with past commotion, that crept languidly away from beneath. —  Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 85, January, 1875
  • "I'm afraid I don't know what a spandrel is," Christopher announced with appealing frankness. —  Christopher and the Clockmakers
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English spaundrell, probably from spandre, space between supporting timbers, from Anglo-Norman spaundre, from spandre, to spread out, from Latin expandere; see expand.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also spandril, formerly splaundrel, spaundere; origin obscure.
 

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/ˈspændrɛl/
by American Heritage

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