machicolation

[ muh-chik-uh-ley-shuhn ]

nounArchitecture.
  1. an opening in the floor between the corbels of a projecting gallery or parapet, as on a wall or in the vault of a passage, through which missiles, molten lead, etc., might be cast upon an enemy beneath.

  2. a projecting gallery or parapet with such openings.

Origin of machicolation

1
First recorded in 1780–90; machicolate + -ion

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use machicolation in a sentence

  • Its orchid-shaped machicolations have also survived, and even to-day they are noticeably beautiful.

  • It was protected by a strong wall from twenty to thirty feet high, having a parapet and machicolations, with twenty-four towers.

    Joan of Arc | Lucy Foster Madison
  • He peered into slits, glanced at the machicolations aloft, measured salients and re-entrants and dead-ground with his eyes.

    The Tower of Oblivion | Oliver Onions
  • Small watch-towers, corbelled at the summits upon false machicolations, are adjacent to the larger.

    British Castles | Charles H. Ashdown
  • Its orchid machicolations are remarkable both for their beauty and their utility.

    Rambles in Brittany | Francis Miltoun

British Dictionary definitions for machicolation

machicolation

/ (məˌtʃɪkəʊˈleɪʃən) /


noun
  1. (esp in medieval castles) a projecting gallery or parapet supported on corbels having openings through which missiles could be dropped

  2. any such opening

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012