The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vault \Vault\ (v[add]lt; see Note, below), n. [OE. voute, OF. voute, volte, F. vo[^u]te, LL. volta, for voluta, volutio, fr. L. volvere, volutum, to roll, to turn about. See Voluble, and cf. Vault a leap, Volt a turn, Volute.]
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(Arch.) An arched structure of masonry, forming a ceiling or canopy.
The long-drawn aisle and fretted vault.
--Gray. -
An arched apartment; especially, a subterranean room, use for storing articles, for a prison, for interment, or the like; a cell; a cellar. ``Charnel vaults.''
--Milton.The silent vaults of death.
--Sandys.To banish rats that haunt our vault.
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The canopy of heaven; the sky.
That heaven's vault should crack.
--Shak. -
[F. volte, It. volta, originally, a turn, and the same word as volta an arch. See the Etymology above.] A leap or bound. Specifically:
(Man.) The bound or leap of a horse; a curvet.
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A leap by aid of the hands, or of a pole, springboard, or the like.
Note: The l in this word was formerly often suppressed in pronunciation.
Barrel vault, Cradle vault, Cylindrical vault, or Wagon vault (Arch.), 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.
Coved vault. (Arch.) See under 1st Cove, v. t.
Groined vault (Arch.), a vault having groins, that is, one in which different cylindrical surfaces intersect one another, as distinguished from a barrel, or wagon, vault.
Rampant vault. (Arch.) See under Rampant.
Ribbed vault (Arch.), 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.
Cylindric \Cy*lin"dric\ (s?-l?n"dr?k), Cylindrical \Cy*lin"dric*al\ (-dr?-kal), a. [Gr. kylindriko`s, from ky`lindros cylinder: cf. F. cylindrique.] Having the form of a cylinder, or of a section of its convex surface; partaking of the properties of the cylinder.
Cylindrical lens, a lens having one, or more than one, cylindrical surface.
Cylindric surface, or Cylindrical surface (Geom.), a surface described by a straight line that moves according to any law, but so as to be constantly parallel to a given line.
Cylindrical vault. (Arch.) See under Vault, n.
Usage examples of "cylindrical vault".
Blades of sunlight ebbed and flowed in the huge cylindrical vault like tides of light.
That all the rest, the puppet-control of his body, the green-lit cylindrical vault with all its crystal caskets, were insane delusions and nothing more.