vault
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /vɒlt/
ipa: /vɔːlt/
ipa: /vɑlt/
ipa: /vɔlt/
ipa: /vɑlt/
ipa: /vɔlt/
rhymes: -ɔːlt
rhymes: -ɒlt
homophone: volt stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Forms: form: vaults
Etymology: From Middle English vaute, vowte, from Old French volte (modern voûte), from Vulgar Latin *volta < *volvita or *volŭta, a regularization of Latin volūta (compare modern volute (“spire”)), the past participle of volvere (“roll, turn”). Cognate with Spanish vuelta (“turn”) and Portuguese volta ("turn"). Doublet of volute.
Senses: examples: text: The decoration of the vault of Sainte-Chapelle was much brighter before its 19th-century restoration.
text: the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
ref: 1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751), T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], published 1753, →OCLC:
glosses: An arched masonry structure supporting and forming a ceiling, whether freestanding or forming part of a larger building.
glosses: Any arched ceiling or roof.
examples: text: The stalactites held tightly to the cave's vault.
text: His fiery eies are fixt vpon the earth.
As if he now deuiſ’d some Stratageme:
Or meant to pierce Auernus darkſome vauts.
To pull the triple headed dog from hell.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
text: Had I your tongues and eyes, Il’d vſe them so,
That Heauens vault ſhould crack: ſhe’s gone for euer.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 308:
text: The ſilent vaults of Death, vnknowne to Light;
And Hell it ſelfe, lye naked to his ſight.
ref: 1636, George Sandys, “A Paraphrase upon Job”, in A Paraphrase upon the Divine Poems:
text: No bird flew in the blue vault of heaven, no man or beast moved upon the vast countryside which lay before us.
ref: 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
text: God said, ‘Let there be a vault through the middle of the waters to divide the waters in two.’
ref: 1985, Bible (NJB), Genesis, 1:6
glosses: Anything resembling such a downward-facing concave structure, particularly the sky and caves.
glosses: The space covered by an arched roof, particularly underground rooms and (Christianity, obsolete) church crypts.
examples: text: to banish rats that haunt our vault
ref: 1730, Jonathan Swift, A Panegyrick on the Dean:
glosses: Any cellar or underground storeroom.
examples: text: Holonyms: catacomb, cuniculus
text: Near-synonyms: crypt, mausoleum
text: Family members had been buried in the vault for centuries.
synonyms: sepulchre
sepulcher
tomb
coordinate_terms: deadhouse
morgue
mortuary
glosses: Any burial chamber, particularly those underground.
examples: text: The bank kept their money safe in a large vault.
glosses: The secure room or rooms in or below a bank used to store currency and other valuables; similar rooms in other settings.
glosses: Any archive of past content.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: An encrypted digital archive.
glosses: An underground or covered conduit for water or waste; a drain; a sewer.
glosses: An underground or covered reservoir for water or waste; a cistern; a cesspit.
glosses: A room employing a cesspit or sewer: an outhouse; a lavatory.
Synonyms: sense: outhouse or lavatory
word: bathroom
sense: gymnastic apparatus
word: vaulting table
Hyponyms: barrel vault
cloister vault
compound vault
cross vault
cylindrical vault
decapartite vault
dodecapartite vault
domical vault
double barrel vault
groined vault
groin vault
necessary vault
oblique vault
octopartite vault
panel vault
polygonal vault
quadripartite vault
quinquepartite vault
ribbed vault
rib vault
seed vault
segmental vault
septempartite vault
sexpartite vault
star vault
stilted vault
tripartite vault
vaginal vault
virgin vault
Welsh vault
wine vault
Derived terms: sail vault
vaultlike
vault toilet
vault-worthy