Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The generally triangular section of wall at the end of a pitched roof, occupying the space between the two slopes of the roof.
  • noun The whole end wall of a building or wing having a pitched roof.
  • noun A triangular, usually ornamental architectural section, as one above an arched door or window.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In architecture, the end of a ridged roof which at its extremity is not hipped or returned on itself, but cut off in a vertical plane, together with the triangular expanse of wall from the level of the eaves to the apex: distinguished from a pediment in that the cornice is not carried across the base of the triangle.
  • noun Any architectural member having the form of a gable, as a triangular canopy over a window or a doorway.
  • noun The end-wall of a house; a gable-end.
  • noun In mech., the outer end or tip of the crank in a cranked axle or shaft. The finishing of this is termed cutting the gable.
  • noun A cable.
  • To give to a roof a gable or gabled end.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The vertical triangular portion of the end of a building, from the level of the cornice or eaves to the ridge of the roof. Also, a similar end when not triangular in shape, as of a gambrel roof and the like.
  • noun The end wall of a building, as distinguished from the front or rear side.
  • noun A decorative member having the shape of a triangular gable, such as that above a Gothic arch in a doorway.
  • noun See under Bell.
  • noun a double sloping roof which forms a gable at each end.
  • noun Same as Gable (b).
  • noun a window in a gable.
  • noun Archaic A cable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun architecture The triangular area of external wall adjacent to two meeting sloped roofs.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun United States film actor (1901-1960)
  • noun the vertical triangular wall between the sloping ends of gable roof

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gable, gavel, from Norman French gable (perhaps of Celtic origin) and from Old Norse gafl; see ghebh-el- in Indo-European roots.]

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