Crossword clues for gambrel
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gambrel \Gam"brel\ v. t.
To truss or hang up by means of a gambrel.
--Beau. & Fl.
Gambrel \Gam"brel\, n. [OF. gambe, jambe leg, F. jambe. Cf. Cambrel, Chambrel, and see Gambol. n.]
The hind leg of a horse.
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A stick crooked like a horse's hind leg; -- used by butchers in suspending slaughtered animals.
Gambrel roof (Arch.), a curb roof having the same section in all parts, with a lower steeper slope and an upper and flatter one, so that each gable is pentagonal in form.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"hipped roof," 1851, short for gambrel roof (1763), so called for its shape, from gambrel "horse's hind leg" (c.1600), earlier "wooden bar to hang carcasses" (1540s), perhaps from Old North French gamberel, from gambe "leg," from Late Latin gamba (see gambol).
Wiktionary
n. 1 The hind leg of a horse. 2 (context chiefly historical and obsolete outside dialects English) A bar, usually metal, with a central loop and a hook at each end, used to hang a carcass for butchering. 3 (context US architecture English) A gambrel roof. vb. To truss or hang up by means of a gambrel.
WordNet
n. a gable roof with two slopes on each side and the lower slope being steeper [syn: gambrel roof]
Wikipedia
A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, while the lower slope is steep. This design provides the advantages of a sloped roof while maximizing headroom inside the building's upper level and shortening what would otherwise be a tall roof. The name comes from the Medieval Latin word gamba, meaning horse's hock or leg. The term gambrel is of American origin, the older, European name being a curb (kerb, kirb) roof. Europeans historically did not distinguish between a gambrel roof and a mansard roof but called both types a mansard. In the United States, various shapes of gambrel roofs are sometimes called Dutch gambrel or Dutch Colonial gambrel with bell-cast eaves, Swedish ~, German ~, English ~ , French ~, or New England gambrel.
The cross-section of a gambrel roof is similar to that of a mansard roof, but a gambrel has vertical gable ends instead of being hipped at the four corners of the building. A gambrel roof overhangs the façade, whereas a mansard normally does not.
Usage examples of "gambrel".
Rhine and the Danube, he had selected this eminence on which to place his substantial gambrel roofed dwelling-house.
They were based on a natural characteristic of elk or deer: the hind leg bends so sharply at the gambrel joint it conforms to the natural shape of a human foot.
Sparrow, waiting on the crest of a gambrel roof for Jame to scramble up to him.
It was big and sturdy, with a gambrel roof dark overhead, and a wide doorway, big enough for a car or a wagon, open like a black mouth to the road.
It was quite an old frame-building, two stories high, with a gambrel roof and tall chimneys.
And the houseI had often pictured that house in my memorywith its great arched doorway, its small-paned windows and its gambrel roof.
He had a spikehorn buck hung up by the gambrels in a walnut tree, cutting out the best of the meat to be wrapped in the hide for the long carry home.
The Warner House, a three-story building with gambrel roof and luthern windows, is as fine and substantial an exponent of the architecture of the period as you are likely to meet with anywhere in New England.
Beacon Hill at evening, the tall steeples and winding hill streets of quaint Kingsport, the hoary gambrel roofs of ancient and witch-haunted Arkham, and the blessed meads and valleys where stone walls rambled and white farmhouse gables peeped out from bowers of verdure.
And dogs barked as the yellow light of small-paned windows shone out at the farther turn, and the Pleiades twinkled across the open knoll where a great gambrel roof stood black against the dim west.
Most of it built before 1670, and the gambrel roof no later than 1730.
Wynand's house stood drawn on the paper--with Colonial porches, a gambrel roof, two massive chimneys, a few little pilasters, a few porthole windows.
Beyond a deep backyard, shingled to match the house and with windows flanked by white shutters, stands a small barn with a gambrel roof Because the property is at the extreme southern end of town it offers access to riding trails and the open hills.
Their cars and television trucks blocked traffic and outnumbered police vehicles three to one in front of a white Cape Cod with a gambrel roof that looked like it belonged in New England.
Her house was a field stone building of comfortable proportions with a gambrel roof and twin gables.