Search the Dictionary

State of abutting.

of wood under the end of a bridge girder, to keep the girder from resting directly on the abutment.

-- Girder bridge or Truss bridge, a bridge formed by girders, or by trusses resting upon abutments or piers. -- Lattice bridge, a bridge formed by lattice girders. -- Pontoon bridge, Ponton bridge. See under Pontoon. -- Skew bridge, a bridge built obliquely from bank to bank, as sometimes required in railway engine…

rough a tenon nearer to the shoulder than the holes through the cheeks are to the edge or abutment against which the shoulder is to rest, so that a pin or bolt, when driven into it, will draw these parts together. Weale.

The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments. [R.] Knight.

A projecting wharf or landing place. Abutment pier, the pier of a bridge next the shore; a pier which by its strength and stability resists the thrust of an arch. -- Pier glass, a mirror, of high and narrow shape, to be put up between windows. -- Pier table, a table made to stand between windows.

at a portal, serving to transfer wind pressure from the upper parts of the trusses to an abutment or pier of the bridge.

t hind leg should be raised higher than the left. Rampant arch. (a) An arch which has one abutment higher than the other. (b) Same as Rampant vault, below. -- Rampant gardant (Her.), rampant, but with the face turned to the front. -- Rampant regardant, rampant, but looking backward. -- Rampant vault (Arch.), a conti…

ts. Rev. ii. 23. Reins of a vault (Arch.), the parts between the crown andd the spring or abutment, including, and having especial reference to, the loading or filling behind the shell of the vault. The reins are to a vault nearly what the haunches are to an arch, and when a vault gives way by thrusting outward, it is…

An abrupt projection which forms an abutment on an object, or limits motion, etc., as the projection around a tenon at the end of a piece of timber, the part of the top of a type which projects beyond the base of the raised character, etc. Shoulder belt, a belt that passes across the shoulder. -- Shoulder blade (Anat.…

course of masonry, the stone, or the iron plate, having an inclined face, which forms the abutment for the voussoirs of a segmental arch. (b) A plate, cap, or shoe, having an inclined face to receive the nut of a diagonal brace, rod, or the end of an inclined strut, in a truss or frame. -- Skew bridge. See under Bridg…

The spread or extent of an arch between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between its supports.

The rib of a groined vault, as being the solid abutment for each section of vaulting.

physical sense; to prop up; to bear the weight of; as, a pillar supports a structure; an abutment supports an arch; the trunk of a tree supports the branches.

istance; to leave behind. Addison. (d) To cause to project; as, to throw out a pier or an abutment. (e) To give forth; to emit; as, an electric lamp throws out a brilliant light. (f) To put out; to confuse; as, a sudden question often throws out an orator. -- To throw over, to abandon the cause of; to desert; to disca…

especially (Arch.), a horizontal or diagonal outward pressure, as of an arch against its abutments, or of rafters against the wall which support them.

built on either side of the junction of a bridge with the bank of a river, to protect the abutment of the bridge and the bank from the action of the current.