The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mansard roof \Man"sard roof"\ [So called from its inventor, Fran[,c]ois Mansard, or Mansart, a distinguished French architect, who died in 1666.] (Arch.) A hipped curb roof; that is, a roof having on all sides two slopes, the lower one being steeper than the upper one.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A roof having two slopes on each side, the lower one having a steeper pitch than the upper; this increases the volume of the enclosed space. 2 A steeper roof that terminates into a flat roof at its high point.
WordNet
n. a hip roof having two slopes on each side [syn: mansard]
Wikipedia
A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The steep roof with windows creates an additional floor of habitable space (a garret), and reduces the overall height of the roof for a given number of habitable storeys. The upper slope of the roof may not be visible from street level when viewed from close proximity to the building.
The earliest known example of a mansard roof is credited to Pierre Lescot on part of the Louvre built around 1550. This roof design was popularized in the early 17th century by François Mansart (1598–1666), an accomplished architect of the French Baroque period. It became especially fashionable during the Second French Empire (1852–1870) of Napoléon III. Mansard in Europe also means the attic (garret) space itself, not just the roof shape and is often used in Europe to mean a gambrel roof.
"Mansard Roof" is the debut single by indie rock band, Vampire Weekend, released on October 23, 2007.
Usage examples of "mansard roof".
Any one who had been walking along the boulevard and had happened to glance up at the roof of the tall apartment building might have seen Long Sin's figure silhouetted against the sky on the top of the mansard roof near a flagpole.
And, as evidenced by the falling slate, the mansard roof wasn't completely intact, either.
It had a high mansard roof with a picket fence on top and a tower made of fancy shingles at each end.
Framed by the gap, there was a mansard roof and bits of stone walls far up ahead at the top of the valley.
The Hotel de Chatelet had a mansard roof, into which were set mullioned windows in arched dormers.
Two Ringstrasse was a gated stucco mansion painted the color of rust, mansard roof and dormer windows.
Antryg, sitting in the dark window embrasure of the room the Prince had given him, up under the eaves of the Summer Palace's mansard roof, looked around at her and smiled.
Running a print shop in Roseburg, Oregon, living in a cute little house with a mansard roof—.
Opposite was a cluster of three old houses leaning together as if the outer ones were trying to support the beetling mansard roof of the center house.