GROINED VAULT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Groined vault

Vault n.

(Arch.) An arched structure of masonry, forming a ceiling or canopy. "The long-drawn aisle and fretted vault."

An arched apartment; especially, a subterranean room, used for storing articles, for a prison, for interment, or the like; a cell; a cellar. "Charnel vaults." "The silent vaults of death." "To banish rats that haunt our vault."

The canopy of heaven; the sky. "That heaven's vault should crack."

A leap or bound. Specifically:

(a)

(Man.) The bound or leap of a horse; a curvet.

(b)

A leap by aid of the hands, or of a pole, springboard, or the like. Note: The l in this word was formerly often suppressed in pronunciation.

Barrel vault, Cradle vault, Cylindrical vault, or Wagon vault (Arch.), a kind of vault having two parallel abutments, and the same section or profile at all points. It may be rampant, as over a staircase (see Rampant vault, under Rampant), or curved in plan, as around the apse of a church.

Coved vault. (Arch.) See under 1st Cove, v. t.

Groined vault (Arch.), a vault having groins, that is, one in which different cylindrical surfaces intersect one another, as distinguished from a barrel, or wagon, vault.

Rampant vault. (Arch.) See under Rampant.

Ribbed vault (Arch.), a vault differing from others in having solid ribs which bear the weight of the vaulted surface. True Gothic vaults are of this character.

Vault light, a partly glazed plate inserted in a pavement or ceiling to admit light to a vault below.