VAULT

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

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

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

A leap or bound. Specifically: --

A leap by aid of the hands, or of a pole, springboard, or the like.

To form with a vault, or to cover with a vault; to give the shape of an arch to; to arch; as, vault a roof; to vault a passage to a court. The shady arch that vaulted the broad green alley. Sir W. Scott.

To leap over; esp., to leap over by aid of the hands or a pole; as, to vault a fence. I will vault credit, and affect high pleasures. Webster (1623).

To leap; to bound; to jump; to spring. Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself. Shak. Leaning on his lance, he vaulted on a tree. Dryden. Lucan vaulted upon Pegasus with all the heat and intrepidity of youth. Addison.

To exhibit feats of tumbling or leaping; to tumble.