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.
--Swift. -
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.
Wiktionary
n. (context architecture English) A building structure created by an intersection of two or three vaults.
WordNet
n. vault that resembles a groined vault but has ribbed arches
Usage examples of "ribbed vault".
The lack of decor made the interior look even more expansive, and as Silas gazed up into the soaring ribbed vault of the ceiling, he imagined he was standing beneath the hull of an enormous overturned ship.
In one corner of the caverns stood a standard Barrayaran field shelter, a semicircular ribbed vault covered with a fabric like the Betans' tents.
The light came on and the ribbed vault of the roof lit up like a church.
He found the church he was looking for, though he couldn't have said what his criteria were, and lay down beneath the ribbed vault that somehow reminded him of himself.