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The process or art of constructing; the act of building; erection; the act of devising and forming; fabrication; composition.

who contracts to perform work on a rather large scale, at a certain price or rate, as in building houses or making a railroad.

ken shells and corals, found in the southern United States, and used for roadbeds and for building material, as in the fort at St. Augustine, Florida.

An ornament in a building; a corbel.

n itself. -- Corps de logis (ke l Etym: [F., body of the house], the principal mass of a building, considered apart from its wings. -- Corps diplomatique (k Etym: [F., diplomatic body], the body of ministers or envoys accredited to a government.

rnal courtyard inclosed by the walls of a large dwelling house or other large and stately building.

nuous level range of brick or stones of the same height throughout the face or faces of a building. Gwilt.

An inclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different building; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley. The courts the house of our God. Ps. cxxxv. 2. And round the cool green courts there ran a row Cf cloisters. Tennyson. Golds…

; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove. The mosques and other buildings of the Arabians are rounded into domes and coved roofs. H. Swinburne. Coved ceiling, a ceiling, the part of which next the wail is constructed in a cove. -- Coved vault, a vault composed of four coves meeting in a centr…

, narrow opening, fissure, crevice, or chink, as in a wall, or other substance. In a firm building, the cavities ought not to be filled with rubbish, but with brick or stone fitted to the crannies. Dryden. He peeped into every cranny. Arbuthnot.

A furnace for cremating corpses; a building containing such a furnace.

a crenelated leaf. Crenelated molding (Arch.), a kind of indented molding used in Norman buildings.

Spars or timbers set up as a support against the side of a building.

The lowest course of stones in a building.

p. a. & vb. n. of Cure. Curing house, a building in which anything is cured; especially, in the West Indies, a building in which sugar is drained and dried.

That part of a wall of a building which is between two pavilions, towers, etc.

One who has care or custody, as of some public building; a keeper or superintendent.

The building where customs and duties are paid, and where vessels are entered or cleared. Customhouse broker, an agent who acts for merchants in the business of entering and clearing goods and vessels.

Relating to a structure composed of a circular range of columns, without a core or building within. Weale.

To note or fix the time of, as of an event; to give the date of; as, to date the building of the pyramids.