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Webster 1913 Edition


Buttress

But′tress

,
Noun.
[OE.
butrasse
,
boterace
, fr. F.
bouter
to push; cf. OF.
bouteret
(nom. sing. and acc. pl.
bouterez
) buttress. See
Butt
an end, and cf.
Butteris
.]
1.
(Arch.)
A projecting mass of masonry, used for resisting the thrust of an arch, or for ornament and symmetry.
☞ When an external projection is used merely to stiffen a wall, it is a pier.
2.
Anything which supports or strengthens.
“The ground pillar and buttress of the good old cause of nonconformity.”
South.
Flying buttress
.

But′tress

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Buttressed
([GREEK]);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Buttressing
.]
To support with a buttress; to prop; to brace firmly.
To set it upright again, and to prop and
buttress
it up for duration.
Burke.

Webster 1828 Edition


Buttress

BUT'TRESS

,
Noun.
[This word appears to be composed of but,end, and truss, or some word of that family.]
1.
A prop; a wall or abutment built archwise, serving to support another wall on the outside, when very high or loaded with a heavy superstructure.
2.
Any prop or support.

BUT'TRESS

,
Verb.
T.
To support by a buttress; to prop.

Definition 2024


buttress

buttress

English

Buttress tree roots (Kapok tree)

Noun

buttress (plural buttresses)

  1. (architecture) A brick or stone structure built against another structure to support it.
  2. Anything that serves to support something; a prop.
  3. (botany) A buttress-root.
  4. (climbing) A feature jutting prominently out from a mountain or rock; a crag, a bluff.
    Crowell Buttresses, Dismal Buttress, Hourglass Buttress, Kardam Buttress, Seven Buttresses
    Milestone Buttress on Tryfan. The direct route is highlighted.
    • 2005, Will Cook, Until Darkness Disappears, page 54:
      All that day they rode into broken land. The prairie with its grass and rolling hills was behind them, and they entered a sparse, dry, rocky country, full of draws and short cañons and ominous buttresses.
    • 2010, Tony Howard, Treks and Climbs in Wadi Rum, Jordan, ISBN 9781852842543, page 84:
      Two short pitches up a chimney-crack are followed by a traverse right to the centre of the buttress.
  5. (figuratively) Anything that supports or strengthens.
    • South
      the ground pillar and buttress of the good old cause of nonconformity

Derived terms

Synonyms

Translations

See also

Verb

buttress (third-person singular simple present buttresses, present participle buttressing, simple past and past participle buttressed)

  1. To support something physically with, or as if with, a prop or buttress.
  2. To support something or someone by supplying evidence; to corroborate or substantiate.

Translations