Definitions

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  • noun Plural form of peristyle.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Hence, though it keeps its colour perfectly when applied in the polished stucco finish of closed apartments, yet in open apartments, such as peristyles or exedrae or other places of the sort, where the bright rays of the sun and moon can penetrate, it is spoiled by contact with them, loses the strength of its colour, and turns black.

    The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio

  • The terraces which crown the peristyles of the theatres were bordered with spectators.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • There was a passage through the centre of the Galleries then as now; and, as at the present day, you entered them through the two peristyles begun before the Revolution, and left unfinished for lack of funds; but in place of the handsome modern arcade leading to the Theatre – Francais, you passed along a narrow, disproportionately lofty passage, so ill-roofed that the rain came through on wet days.

    A Distinguished Provincial at Paris 2007

  • The despairing priests wrung their hands on the peristyles of the temples.

    Salammbo 2003

  • In the distance the roar of the streets was growing feebler, violet shadows were lengthening before the peristyles of the temples, and on the other side of the gulf the mountain bases, the fields of olive-trees, and the vague yellow lands undulated indefinitely, and were blended together in a bluish haze; not a sound was to be heard, and an unspeakable depression weighed in the air.

    Salammbo 2003

  • We found, especially in the eastern half of the surveyed area, many column fragments, which likely belonged to the peristyles of ashlar-built houses.

    Interactive Dig Sagalassos 2003 - Urban Survey Report 2 2003

  • At last she would close the lids of her weary eyes, and see in the darkness the gas jets flaring in the wind and the steps of carriages lowered with much noise before the peristyles of theatres.

    Madame Bovary 2003

  • He found himself at first in a thoroughly European quarter, the houses having low fronts, and being adorned with verandas, beneath which he caught glimpses of neat peristyles.

    Around the World in 80 Days 2003

  • We found ourselves in a vast patio or court one hundred and fifty feet in length, and upwards of eighty feet in breadth, paved with white marble, and decorated at each end with light Moorish peristyles, one of which supported an elegant gallery of fretted architecture.

    The Alhambra 2002

  • When one looks upon the fairy traces of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the quiet, though no less baneful, pilferings of the tasteful traveller; it is almost sufficient to excuse the popular tradition that the whole is protected by a magic charm.

    The Alhambra 2002

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