The Collaborative International Dictionary
Buttress \But"tress\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Buttressed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Buttressing.] To support with a buttress; to prop; to brace firmly.
To set it upright again, and to prop and buttress it up
for duration.
--Burke.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of buttress English)
WordNet
n. a support usually of stone or brick; supports the wall of a building [syn: buttress]
Usage examples of "buttressing".
The cross-wall served as a buttress for the old outer wall, and at one time it had been intended to thicken the buttressing cross-wall, then make the space it contained into an even larger bastion, but the work had never been done and now the wall, its coping just eight inches across, offered itself as a perilously narrow bridge to the redcoats and sepoys who were trapped by the Tippoo's fire.
The Tippoo's men on the outer wall cheered and edged forward to drive the enemy away from the buttressing cross-wall, but a rush of sepoys checked their progress.
Further difficulties were caused by the defenders firing from the inner wall's sheltered firestep, and it was not until Captain Goodall, the commander of the 12th Regiment's Light Company, had led his men across the buttressing cross-wall and so began the capture of the inner ramparts that the defence collapsed.
It was as if the finest musicians of the realm sat behind him, playing their instruments in perfect accord, buttressing and amplifying his voice, making of it a sound no natural human throat could issue.
It was a standard peasant dwelling, with stout posts buttressing thin logs, the walls chinked with twigs and mud, the roof thatched with straw.
And you know how churches have a complex internal and external buttressing to keep them from falling down, right?
As the bracing and buttressing had continued, the alarms had steadily decreased in frequency.
The final step before the stairs reached the top landing shone red all the way through, including the buttressing underneath it.