copestone

[ kohp-stohn ]

noun
  1. the top stone of a building or other structure.

  2. a stone used for or in coping.

  1. the crown or completion; finishing touch.

Origin of copestone

1
First recorded in 1560–70; cope2 + stone

Words Nearby copestone

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

How to use copestone in a sentence

  • The copestone which Absalom put on his plot when all was ripe for execution was of a piece with the whole undertaking.

  • The universe is finished; the copestone is on, and the chips were carted off a million years ago.

    Moby Dick; or The Whale | Herman Melville
  • For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity.

    Moby Dick; or The Whale | Herman Melville
  • It was reserved to his successor to raise it, as the martyr had predicted it would be raised, even to the copestone.

    The Scottish Reformation | Alexander F. Mitchell
  • The justices and councilors of a supreme court, the copestone of the judiciary, were nominated by the same body.

    The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte | William Milligan Sloane

British Dictionary definitions for copestone

copestone

/ (ˈkəʊpˌstəʊn) /


noun
  1. Also called: coping stone a stone used to form a coping

  2. Also called: capstone the stone at the top of a building, wall, etc

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