Buttress

/ˈbʌtɹəs/ · noun

Meaning

(architecture) A brick, concrete or stone structure built against another structure to support it..

Definitions by Sense

1. (architecture) A brick, concrete or stone structure built against another structure to support it.
2. (by extension) Anything that serves to support something; a prop.
3. (botany) A buttress root.
4. (climbing) A feature jutting prominently out from a mountain or rock.
5. (figurative) Anything that supports or strengthens.
6. To support something physically with, or as if with, a prop or buttress.
7. (figurative, by extension) To support something or someone by supplying evidence.

Example Sentences

It was decided, therefore, to build eight concrete buttresses from the new strengthening work to safeguard the general stability of the wall along the length where the greatest movement had taken place.

Crowell Buttresses, Dismal Buttress

All that day they rode into broken land. The prairie with its grass and rolling hills was behind them, and they entered a sparse, dry, rocky country, full of draws and short cañons and ominous buttresses.

Two short pitches up a chimney-crack are followed by a traverse right to the centre of the buttress.

the grand pillar and buttress of the good old cause of nonconformity

Buttressed by elaborate account statements and a deep reservoir of trust from his investors and regulators, Mr. Madoff steered his fraud scheme safely through a severe recession in the early 1990s, a global financial crisis in 1998 and the anxious aftermath of the terrorist attacks in September 2001.

Synonyms for buttress

Antonyms for buttress

Related Words

Word Forms

• buttresses
• buttrice
• buttressing
• buttressed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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