The Collaborative International Dictionary
Butment \But"ment\, n. [Abbreviation of Abutment.]
(Arch.) A buttress of an arch; the supporter, or that part which joins it to the upright pier.
-
(Masonry) The mass of stone or solid work at the end of a bridge, by which the extreme arches are sustained, or by which the end of a bridge without arches is supported.
Butment cheek (Carp.), the part of a mortised timber surrounding the mortise, and against which the shoulders of the tenon bear.
--Knight.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context architecture English) A buttress of an arch; the supporter, or that part which joins it to the upright pier. 2 (context masonry English) The mass of stone or solid work at the end of a bridge, by which the extreme arches are sustained, or by which the end of a bridge without arches is supported.
Usage examples of "butment".
A bridge once connected it with the road on the opposite bank, but it was carried away three or four years ago, and its ragged butments stand as a monument of procrastination, while the stream is crossed by means of a flatboat and a cable.
Broad and fair just beneath us, it narrows to a little strait of green between the butments that uplift the giant domes.