Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Vault

Vault (va̤lt; see Note, below), n. [OE. voute, OF. voute, volte, F. voûte, LL. volta, for voluta, volutio, fr. L. volvere, volutum, to roll, to turn about. See Voluble, and cf. Vault a leap, Volt a turn, Volute.]

1. (Arch.) An arched structure of masonry, forming a ceiling or canopy.

The long-drawn aisle and fretted vault. Gray.

2. 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.

3. The canopy of heaven; the sky.

That heaven's vault should crack. Shak.

4. [F. volte, It. volta, originally, a turn, and the same word as volta an arch. See the Etymology above.] 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.

☞ The l in this word was formerly often suppressed in pronunciation.

Barrel, Cradle, Cylindrical, 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.

Vault (va̤lt), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Vaulted; p. pr. & vb. n. Vaulting.] [OE. vouten, OF. volter, vouter, F. voûter. See Vault an arch.]

1. 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.

2. [See Vault, v. i.] 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.

Vault, v. i. [Cf. OF. volter, F. voltiger, It. voltare turn. See Vault, n., 4.]

1. 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.

2. To exhibit feats of tumbling or leaping; to tumble.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.