1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Buttress

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

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

n. A structure, usually brick or stone, built against a wall for support or reinforcement.

n. Something resembling a buttress, as:

n. The flared base of certain tree trunks.

n. A horny growth on the heel of a horse's hoof.

n. Something that serves to support, prop, or reinforce: "The law is by its very nature a buttress of the status quo” ( J. William Fulbright).

v. To support or reinforce with a buttress.

v. To sustain, prop, or bolster: "The author buttresses her analysis with lengthy dissections of several of Moore's poems” ( Warren Woessner).

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A brick or stone structure built against another structure to support it.

n. Anything that serves to support something; a prop.

n. A buttress-root.

n. A feature jutting prominently out from a mountain or rock; a crag, a bluff.

v. To support something physically with, or as if with, a prop or buttress.

v. To support something or someone by supplying evidence; to corroborate or substantiate.

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A projecting mass of masonry, used for resisting the thrust of an arch, or for ornament and symmetry.

n. Anything which supports or strengthens.

v. To support with a buttress; to prop; to brace firmly.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A structure built against a wall, for the purpose of giving it stability.

n. Figuratively, any prop or support.

n. In farriery, an instrument of steel set in wood, for paring the hoof of a horse.

To support by a buttress; hence, to prop or prop up, literally or figuratively.

n. A wall or abutment built along a stream to prevent the logs in a drive from cutting the bank or jamming.

n. The angle formed on the plantar surface of the hoof by the junction of the wall with the bar.

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

v. make stronger or defensible

n. a support usually of stone or brick; supports the wall of a building

v. reinforce with a buttress

Word Usage

"Salvini, a noted Italian democrat, was right on the mark when he observed: "The widespread ignorance of events is the main buttress of injustice"."

Verb Form

buttressed buttresses buttressing

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

beef up fortify strengthen reënforce reinforce

Cross Reference

flying buttress hanging buttress nunatak

Form

buttressed buttressing flying buttress

Synonym

Words with the same meaning

prop support brace flying buttress arc-boutant

Same Context

Words that are found in similar contexts

pinnacle cornice battlements spire parapet