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Keystone of an arch
Answer for the clue "Keystone of an arch ", 5 letters:
quoin
Alternative clues for the word quoin
Word definitions for quoin in dictionaries
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1530s, "a cornerstone," variant spelling of coin (n.); in early use also in other senses of that word, including "a wedge."
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 Any of the corner building blocks of a building, usually larger or more ornate than the surrounding blocks. 2 The keystone of an arch. 3 A metal wedge which fits into the space between the type and the edge of a chase, and is tightened to fix the metal ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. expandable metal or wooden wedge used by printers to lock up a form within a chase [syn: coign , coigne ] the keystone of an arch [syn: coign , coigne ] (architecture) solid exterior angle of a building; especially one formed by a cornerstone [syn: corner ...
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
A quoin is a device used to lock printing type in a chase . Quoins are pairs of wedges , facing opposite directions. A wrench or quoin key forces them together.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Quoin \Quoin\ (kwoin or koin; 277), n. [See Coin , and cf. Coigne .] (Arch.) Originally, a solid exterior angle, as of a building; now, commonly, one of the selected pieces of material by which the corner is marked. Note: In stone, the quoins consist of ...
Usage examples of quoin.
The exactness of the coiled muzzle-lashing, made fast to the eye-bolt above the port-lid, the seizing of the mid-breeching to the pommelion, the neat arrangement of the sponge, handspike, powderhorn, priming-wire, bed, quoin, train-tackle, shot and all the rest told a knowing eye a great deal about the gun-crew and even more about the midshipman of the sub-division.
Petersburg henceforth shall, before it is accepted, be quoined in the same manner by Solomon Kohan.
Settling a hand on the ornamentation, he deduced that it was not real stone but Coade stone, an artificial material that was used for quoining and sculpture when using real stone was too expensive.
The gunners, who had been hammering quoins into the shaken howitzer beds, leaped back as the portfires were lit and as the barrels thudded down again.
He had returned the bag of rupees to Major Stokes, and now, obscurely, he wanted some punishment from the Major, but Stokes was far more concerned about the angle of the quoin.
In a part of the world where so many places have harsh, foreignsounding names full of hard consonants-De Kalb, Du Quoin, Keokuk, Kankakee-Springfield is a little piece of poetry, a name suggesting grassy meadows and cool waters.
The French gunners abandoned their pieces, left their horses squealing and dying, and fled, and then the British guns racked their elevating screws or loosened the howitzer quoins and started to pour shot and shell into the massed ranks of the nearest French column.
One of them, the gun captain, snapped at Sharpe to fetch some quoins so that the breech of the carronade could be elevated.
Handspike, crow, ram, bed, quoin, train tackle, round shot, canister and grape were all neatly arranged.