Bracket
Bracket ({not transcribed}) , noun
[Compare Old French braguette codpiece, French brayette, Sp. bragueta, also a projecting mold in architecture; dim. from Latin bracae breeches; compare also, Old French bracon beam, prop, support; of unknown origin. Compare Breeches.]
1.
(Architecture) An architectural member, plain or ornamental, projecting from a wall or pier, to support weight falling outside of the same; also, a decorative feature seeming to discharge such an office.
This is the more general word. See Brace, Cantalever, Console, Corbel, Strut.
2.
(Engineering & Mechanics) A piece or combination of pieces, usually triangular in general shape, projecting from, or fastened to, a wall, or other surface, to support heavy bodies or to strengthen angles.
3.
(Nautical) A shot, crooked timber, resembling a knee, used as a support.
4.
(Military) The cheek or side of an ordnance carriage.
5.
(Printing) One of two characters [], used to inclose a reference, explanation, or note, or a part to be excluded from a sentence, to indicate an interpolation, to rectify a mistake, or to supply an omission, and for certain other purposes; -- called also crotchet.
6.
A gas fixture or lamp holder projecting from the face of a wall, column, or the like.
7.
(Gunnery) A figure determined by firing a projectile beyond a target and another short of it, as a basis for ascertaining the proper elevation of the piece; -- only used in the phrase, to establish a bracket. After the bracket is established shots are fired with intermediate elevations until the exact range is obtained. In the United States navy it is called fork.
Collocations (1)
Bracket light , a gas fixture or a lamp attached to a wall, column, etc.
Bracket , transitive verb
1.
To place within brackets; to connect by brackets; to furnish with brackets.
2.
(Gunnery) To shoot so as to establish a bracket for (an object).