egg and dart


nounArchitecture.
  1. a design for enriching an ovolo or echinus, consisting of a closely set, alternating series of oval and pointed forms.

Origin of egg and dart

1
First recorded in 1870–75

Words Nearby egg and dart

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

How to use egg and dart in a sentence

  • It is especially frequently found carved with the egg-and-dart ornament.

  • Many ornamental motives, like the zigzag and the egg-and-dart, for example, had originally a symbolic value.

    The Gate of Appreciation | Carleton Noyes
  • The neckings are worked with the capitals, and enriched by 'egg-and-dart' pointing upwards.

    Byzantine Churches in Constantinople | Alexander Van Millingen
  • It is quite possible that the egg-and-dart pattern may have had a multiple origin.

    Evolution in Art | Alfred C. Haddon
  • Egg-and-Dart: An ornament consisting of an alternation of flattened balls or bosses with sharp pointed members like arrow heads.

    How to judge architecture | Russell Sturgis

British Dictionary definitions for egg and dart

egg and dart

noun(in architecture and cabinetwork)
    • an ornamental moulding in which a half egg shape alternates with a dart, tongue, or anchor shape

    • (as modifier): egg-and-dart moulding

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