Vault
Vault (valt; see Note, below) , noun
[Old English voute, Old French voute, volte, French voûte, Late Latin volta, for voluta, volutio, from Latin volvere, volutum, to roll, to turn about. See Voluble, and compare Vault a leap, Volt a turn, Volute.]
1.
(Architecture) An arched structure of masonry, forming a ceiling or canopy.
The long-drawn aisle and fretted vault.
2.
An arched apartment; especially, a subterranean room, used for storing articles, for a prison, for interment, or the like; a cell; a cellar.
Charnel vaults.
The silent vaults of death.
To banish rats that haunt our vault.
3.
The canopy of heaven; the sky.
That heaven's vault should crack.
4.
(Man.) A leap or bound.
(a)
(Man.) The bound or leap of a horse; a curvet.
(b)
(Man.) A leap by aid of the hands, or of a pole, springboard, or the like.
The l in this word was formerly often suppressed in pronunciation.
Collocations (6)
Barrel vault or Cradle vault or Cylindrical vault or Wagon vault (Architecture) , a kind of vault having two parallel abutments, and the same section or profile at all points. It may be rampant, as over a staircase (see Rampant vault, under Rampant), or curved in plan, as around the apse of a church.
Groined vault (Architecture) , a vault having groins, that is, one in which different cylindrical surfaces intersect one another, as distinguished from a barrel, or wagon, vault.
Ribbed vault (Architecture) , a vault differing from others in having solid ribs which bear the weight of the vaulted surface. True Gothic vaults are of this character.
Vault light , a partly glazed plate inserted in a pavement or ceiling to admit light to a vault below.
Vault (valt) , transitive verb
[Old English vouten, Old French volter, vouter, French voûter. See Vault an arch.]
1.
To form with a vault, or to cover with a vault; to give the shape of an arch to; to arch; as, to vault a roof; to vault a passage to a court.
The shady arch that vaulted the broad green alley.
2.
To leap over; esp., to leap over by aid of the hands or a pole; as, to vault a fence.
I will vault credit, and affect high pleasures.
Vault , intransitive verb
[Compare Old French volter, French voltiger, Italian voltare to turn. See Vault, n., 4.]
1.
To leap; to bound; to jump; to spring.
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself.
Leaning on his lance, he vaulted on a tree.
Lucan vaulted upon Pegasus with all the heat and intrepidity of youth.
2.
To exhibit feats of tumbling or leaping; to tumble.