Definitions

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

  • noun An ornamental bracket used in series under a cornice, especially a cornice of the Corinthian, Composite, or Ionic orders.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In architecture, a block carved into the form of an enriched bracket, used normally under the corona in the cornice of the Corinthian and Composite, and occasionally of the Roman Ionic, orders, and in Renaissance and modern designs based upon these, and also in appropriate forms in the various medieval styles; a corbel; a bracket. Compare mutule. Also spelled modillon.

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

  • noun (Arch.) The enriched block or horizontal bracket generally found under the cornice of the Corinthian and Composite entablature, and sometimes, less ornamented, in the Ionic and other orders; -- so called because of its arrangement at regulated distances.

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

  • noun architecture A decoratively carved supporting block atop a column.

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

  • noun (architecture) one of a set of ornamental brackets under a cornice

Etymologies

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

[Italian modiglione, from Vulgar Latin *mutiliō, mutiliōn-, from Latin mūtulus, perhaps of Etruscan origin.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word modillion.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.