Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The act or process of abutting.
- noun Something that abuts.
- noun The point of contact of two abutting objects or parts.
- noun The part of a structure that bears the weight or pressure of an arch.
- noun A structure that supports the end of a bridge.
- noun A structure that anchors the cables of a suspension bridge.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state or condition of abutting.
- noun That which abuts or borders on something else; the part abutting or abutted upon or against.
- noun Sometimes shortened to butment.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun State of abutting.
- noun That on or against which a body abuts or presses.
- noun (Arch.) The solid part of a pier or wall, etc., which receives the thrust or lateral pressure of an arch, vault, or strut.
- noun (Mech.) A fixed point or surface from which resistance or reaction is obtained, as the cylinder head of a steam engine, the fulcrum of a lever, etc.
- noun In breech-loading firearms, the block behind the barrel which receives the pressure due to recoil.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The state of
abutting . - noun architecture That
element that shares a common boundary or surface with its neighbor. - noun dentistry The tooth that supports a
denture orbridge . - noun A fixed point or surface where resistance is obtained.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun point of contact between two objects or parts
- noun a masonry support that touches and directly receives thrust or pressure of an arch or bridge
Etymologies
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Examples
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It's an abutment from a bridge that was put up to go over the Don Valley.
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The January 2009 scare showed engineers that something was happening inside the abutment, which is part of an ancient landslide that fell off McDonald Ridge above the dam.
The News Tribune - Tacoma - - HOMEPAGE newstips@thenewstribune.com (MIKE ARCHBOLD; Staff 2010
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The abutment is the extension attached to the implant, supporting the crown.
PR.com Press Releases Dr. H. Ryan Kazemi 2009
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It's called the abutment, and will protrude above the gums to hold the porcelain tooth.
Best Syndication - 2009
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In this project, which Metro announced in September, the transit authority says it will make preliminary repairs to stabilize the ground, the abutment and the aerial structure outside the Cheverly station.
Metro track work on Blue, Orange lines scheduled on two busy fall weekends Robert Thomson 2010
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"He hit that abutment and it just disintegrated," the witness told Newsday.
Ted Hesson: A Hate Crimes Commander Laid To Rest in Suffolk, But Questions Remain Ted Hesson 2011
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Without even noticing the rumble strips, she slammed into a bridge abutment and rolled over several times into a dry riverbed.
Fatal Error J.A. Jance 2011
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Robert Reecks -- a longtime commander of the Suffolk hate crimes unit -- drove off the road and crashed into a concrete abutment.
Ted Hesson: A Hate Crimes Commander Laid To Rest in Suffolk, But Questions Remain Ted Hesson 2011
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I sit down on a massive stone abutment just across from Notre Dame, where grace hovers hesitantly above the shoulders of stalwart gargoyles.
October « 2009 « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2009
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I sit down on a massive stone abutment just across from Notre Dame, where grace hovers hesitantly above the shoulders of stalwart gargoyles.
travismcdermott commented on the word abutment
1644 EVELYN Mem. (1857) I. 118 The four fountains of Lepidus, built at the abutments of four stately ways.
June 4, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word abutment
"Solid masonry placed to counteract the lateral thrust of a bridge, arch, or vault." According to the glossary I ripped off from another site (URL in my list header).
August 24, 2008