skyscraper
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈskaɪˌskɹeɪpɚ/
ipa: /ˈskaɪˌskɹeɪp.ə(ɹ)/
Forms: form: skyscrapers
Etymology: Compound of sky + scraper, first applied to tall steel-frame buildings in American cities such as New York City and Chicago in the 1880s.
Senses: examples: text: As the curve of Sandy Hook blotted from sight the last, low glimpse of the skyscrapers which point Manhattan, Blake touched Annette's arm.
ref: 1910, William Henry Irwin, The House of Mystery:
text: The solitary attic—if one could thus designate a space of about three square feet—which comprised Hamar's lodging—had the advantage of being situated in the top storey of a skyscraper—at least a skyscraper for that part of the city.
ref: 1912, Elliott O'Donnell, The Sorcery Club:
text: Then he noticed, as a prosaic business man will notice suddenly, that a skyscraper which he has passed daily for months is out of line with its neighbor, that the seat behind the new little girl was unoccupied and that she stood alone in the aisle during exercises.
ref: 1917, Herman Gastrell Seely, A Son of the City: A Story of Boy Life:
text: The Wards are open-topped, with skyscrapers rising from the superstructure. Towers are sealed against vacuum, as the breathable atmosphere envelope is only maintained to a height of about seven meters. The atmosphere is contained by the centrifugal force of rotation and a "membrane" of dense, colorless sulphur hexafluoride gas, held in place by carefully managed mass effect fields.
ref: 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel Station: Wards Codex entry:
text: From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.[…] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.
ref: 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 25 Nov 2020, page 52:
text: Construction of the world’s tallest unoccupied skyscraper may resume as early as next week, almost 10 years after work ground to a halt, according to Chinese state media.
ref: 2025 April 24, Oscar Holland, “Construction of world’s tallest abandoned skyscraper to resume after a decade”, in CNN:
text: Its steel helped build America, from the skyscrapers dotting city landscapes to the cars speeding down highways, to the appliances inside millions of homes.
ref: 2025 June 13, Luciana Lopez and Chris Isidore, “US Steel and Nippon Steel say Trump has approved their partnership”, in CNN Business:
topics: architecture
glosses: A very tall building with a large number of floors.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: A small sail atop a mast of a ship; a triangular skysail.
examples: text: It was no surprise to see Hanley bat a skyscraper out to left.
ref: 1920, Zane Grey, The Redheaded Outfield and other Baseball Stories:
glosses: Anything very tall or high.
Hyponyms: topics: architecture
word: megatall
topics: architecture
word: plain tall
topics: architecture
word: supertall
topics: architecture
word: tall
Coordinate terms: topics: architecture
word: highrise
topics: architecture
word: high-rise
topics: architecture
word: high rise
topics: architecture
word: lowrise
topics: architecture
word: low-rise
topics: architecture
word: low rise
topics: architecture
word: mid-rise
topics: architecture
word: mid rise
topics: architecture
word: midrise
Derived terms: -scraper
skyscraper heel
skyscraperland
skyscraperless