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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
pillar
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a pillar of the community (=a well respected and active member of a community)
▪ The doctor was regarded as a pillar of the local community.
pillar box
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
twin
▪ Style in Washington hangs from the twin pillars of conservatism and political correctness.
▪ The issues of validity and reliability are the twin pillars that prove research to be only mediocre or outstanding.
■ NOUN
box
▪ How my heart leaped to see a red pillar box once more, on the other side of the compound!
▪ Many categories of street furniture can now be listed - pillar boxes, telephone kiosks, drinking fountains and bus shelters.
▪ Mrs Southworth from the Hall was at the pillar box, posting a letter.
marble
▪ The water fountain became an altar, standing on marble pillars and graced by its own fan design.
▪ Bailiffs, armed for this solemn occasion, are positioned at the forward corners of the bench beside the marble pillars.
▪ Opened in 1903, the building had a huge domed trading hall lined with marble pillars and stained glass.
▪ In the drawing room a pair of pink marble pillars supported the embrasure of the windows.
▪ A lead Cupid aimed his arrow from the top of a marble pillar.
stone
▪ This used existing stone pillars, together with new replicas so that the whole design is very much in keeping with the original architecture.
▪ A colonnade of massive stone pillars extended along the entire 462 feet of its front.
▪ The old stone pillars were shaking as if they were being brought back to life.
▪ I had expected something like the Central Y, with high ceilings, impressive stone pillars, and marbled stairs.
▪ A massive grey building, its frontage decorated with stone pillars, its grounds were dotted with statues.
▪ Eight stone pillars supported a dome above a stone floor.
▪ At the end of the rose garden an iron gate between grey stone pillars gave on to the fields beyond.
▪ Her first glimpse of it was through elaborate iron gates set between two large stone pillars surmounted by rampant lions.
■ VERB
support
▪ This beam is then supported by concrete pillars, with spans of up to 50 metres.
▪ A cloistered walkway bordered the courtyard on three sides, arches supported by white pillars, on each pillar a lamp.
▪ He supported himself against a pillar with his free hand.
▪ Its walls and floor were sheathed in gypsum slabs, whilst its ceiling was painted blue and supported by a gypsum pillar.
▪ The mill section was supported internally by iron pillars, cast locally in the Soudley Forge.
▪ Several horse-wheels survive in Northumberland, housed in circular buildings with their roofs supported by pillars of timber or stone.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ IBM's three pillars of business wisdom are service, people, and perfection.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A white pillar of steam marked its finale.
▪ Athelstan gazed at the square, squat pillars decorated with greenery like his own in Southwark, though not as beautiful.
▪ Below, dim curds of refuse lay clotted about the glass pillars of the Maserati Mall.
▪ I run between the concrete pillars holding up the elevated railway, on to the steep stairs.
▪ Never mind that he had been a pillar of the regime and was approved on to the ballot by the Council of Guardians.
▪ Outside the stately music hall, two-story white pillars are quietly rotting away.
▪ The dome was entire gold, standing upon three hundred pillars of precious stones.
▪ This takes us right back to the first pillar of meaningful work: freedom.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pillar

Pillar \Pil"lar\, a. (Mach.) Having a support in the form of a pillar, instead of legs; as, a pillar drill.

Pillar

Pillar \Pil"lar\, n. [OE. pilerF. pilier, LL. pilare, pilarium, pilarius, fr. L. pila a pillar. See Pile a heap.]

  1. The general and popular term for a firm, upright, insulated support for a superstructure; a pier, column, or post; also, a column or shaft not supporting a superstructure, as one erected for a monument or an ornament.

    Jacob set a pillar upon her grave.
    --Gen. xxxv. 20.

    The place . . . vast and proud, Supported by a hundred pillars stood.
    --Dryden.

  2. Figuratively, that which resembles such a pillar in appearance, character, or office; a supporter or mainstay; as, the Pillars of Hercules; a pillar of the state. ``You are a well-deserving pillar.''
    --Shak.

    By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire.
    --Milton.

  3. (R. C. Ch.) A portable ornamental column, formerly carried before a cardinal, as emblematic of his support to the church. [Obs.]
    --Skelton.

  4. (Man.) The center of the volta, ring, or manege ground, around which a horse turns.

    From pillar to post, hither and thither; to and fro; from one place or predicament to another; backward and forward.

    Pillar saint. See Stylite.

    Pillars of the fauces. See Fauces, 1.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
pillar

c.1200, from Old French piler "pillar, column, pier" (12c., Modern French pilier) and directly from Medieval Latin pilare, from Latin pila "pillar, stone barrier." Figurative sense of "prop or support of an institution or community" is first recorded early 14c. Phrase pillar to post is c.1600, originally of tennis, exact meaning obscure.

Wiktionary
pillar

n. 1 (context architecture English) A large post, often used as supporting architecture. 2 Something resembling such a structure. 3 An essential part of something that provides support. 4 (context Roman Catholic English) A portable ornamental column, formerly carried before a cardinal, as emblematic of his support to the church. 5 The centre of the volta, ring, or manege ground, around which a horse turns. vb. To provide with pillars or added strength as if from pillars.

WordNet
pillar
  1. n. a fundamental principle or practice; "science eroded the pillars of superstition"

  2. anything tall and thin approximating the shape of a column or tower; "the test tube held a column of white powder"; "a tower of dust rose above the horizon"; "a thin pillar of smoke betrayed their campsite" [syn: column, tower]

  3. a prominent supporter; "he is a pillar of the community" [syn: mainstay]

  4. a vertical structure standing alone and not supporting anything (as a monument or a column of air) [syn: column]

  5. (architeture) a tall cylindrical vertical upright and used to support a structure [syn: column]

Wikipedia
Pillar (band)

Pillar is a Christian rock band currently located in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Following a brief hiatus, four members from the "peak years" (Rob Beckley, Noah Henson, Michael Kalel Wittig and Lester Estelle) reunited in 2012 and released a new album One Love Revolution on August 18, 2015.

Pillar (Lake District)

Pillar is a mountain in the western part of the English Lake District. Situated between the valleys of Ennerdale to the north and Wasdale to the south, it is the highest point of the Pillar group (some dozen fells clustered round it). At 892 metres (2,927 feet) it is the eighth-highest mountain in the Lake District. The fell takes its name from Pillar Rock, a prominent feature on the Ennerdale side, regarded as the birthplace of rock climbing in the district.

Pillar (disambiguation)

A pillar or column is a structural element in architecture.

Pillar or Pillars may also refer to:

  • Pillar (landform), a vertical, standing, often spire-shaped, natural rock formation ( chimney, monument, pinnacle, pohaku, rock tower).
  • Pillar (band), a Christian rock band
  • Pillar (video game), a 2015 puzzle game for PlayStation 4
  • Pillar (car), the windshield support structure on a car
  • Pillar (Lake District), a mountain in the English Lake District
  • The Pillar, an LGBT publication
  • City Pillars, South African football (soccer) club
  • Pillar Data Systems, a company making enterprise storage systems
  • "Pillars" (song), signature song of rock band Sunny Day Real Estate
  • The Pillar, a fictional title in Magic Knight Rayearth
Pillar (car)

Pillars are the vertical or near vertical supports of a car's window area or greenhouse—designated respectively as the A, B, C or (in larger cars) D-pillar, moving from the front to rear, in profile view.

The consistent alphabetical designation of a car's pillars provides a common reference for design discussion and critical communication. As an example, rescue teams employ pillar nomenclature to facilitate communication when cutting wrecked vehicles, as when using the jaws of life.

The B pillars are sometimes referred to as "posts" (two-door or four-door post sedan).

Pillar (video game)

Pillar is an independent video game designed by Michael Hicks for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox 360. Described as a collection of minigames where each game represents a different type of personality found in people, each level in Pillar has different gameplay mechanics to examine various personality traits and themes. Reviewers noted the game's exploration of themes such as love, religion, capitalism, aging and regret.

Usage examples of "pillar".

From their midst, ornate cast-iron pillars sprouted, acanthus leaves flowing into cantilevered struts supporting flat canopies that sheltered the roadway from the rain.

She wanted to see Aerians sweeping the heights above, and Leontines prowling around the pillars that were placed beneath those heights, as if they held up not only ceiling but sky.

New Agey, like heaven without the harps and angelic choirs and pink clouds and alabaster pillars, or whatever.

As they sailed out into Osiat waters at the western end of the Canal, Alec craned his neck to see the carved tops of the pillars flanking this entrance.

Now if there were several ministers in the church, dressed in such gorgeous colors that I could see them at the distance from the apse at which my limited income compels me to sit, and candles were burning, and censers were swinging, and the platform was full of the sacred bustle of a gorgeous ritual worship, and a bell rang to tell me the holy moments, I should not mind the pillar at all.

When we put him away off in the apse, and set him up for a Goth, and then seat ourselves at a distance, scattered about among the pillars, the whole thing seems to me a trifle unnatural.

Out of sight, beyond the pillars, he could hear the aqueduct disgorging into the reservoir, but with nothing like its normal percussive force.

CHAPTER VII THE WORK IN PROGRESS On the sheltered side of Eastbourne, just at the springing of the downs as you climb towards Beachy Head, is a spacious and heavy-looking stone house, with pillared porch, oriel windows on the ground floor of the front, and a square turret rising above the fine row of chestnuts which flanks the road.

This was the temple of Saturn, very old and large and severely Doric except for the garish colors bedaubing its wooden walls and pillars, home of an ancient statue of the God that had to be kept filled with oil and swaddled with cloth to prevent its disintegration.

The illithids fought back even harder with their mental powers, finally backing the pair up against one cracked pillar outside the beholder ruins.

Slowly, discovering that the main mandibles on the right side hung useless, I hauled the climber back up the rope toward the belay, and saw when I reached it how the harness had almost worn through the pillar of ice.

Forse flared into a pillar of fire, the tall man bolted out the door he had blocked.

The procession was headed toward a pillared entrance of the bulding at the end of the boulevard.

Close to the pillared arcades, there was a thick fringe of café tables and chairs, crowded with another thousand people.

The overall structure, with its retaining walls, cloisters, massive pillars, and courtyards within courtyards, covering thirty-six acres, was virtually a carbon copy of the First Temple, which is to say, ironically, it was an ancient and thoroughly pagan Phoenician or Canaanite design.