buttress

(redirected from buttressing)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical.

Related to buttressing: angle buttress

buttress

1. a construction, usually of brick or stone, built to support a wall

2. either of the two pointed rear parts of a horse's hoof

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Buttress

An exterior mass of masonry projecting from the wall to absorb the lateral thrusts from roof vaults; either unbroken in their height or broken into stages, with a successive reduction in their projection and width. The offsets dividing these stages are generally sloped at a very acute angle. They terminate at the top with a plain slope ending at the wall or with a triangular pediment.

angle buttress

One of the two buttresses at right angles to each other; forming the corner of a structure.

diagonal buttress

A buttress that bisects the 270-degree angle at the outside corner of a building.

flying buttress

A characteristic feature of Gothic construction in which the lateral thrusts of a roof or vault are carried by a segmental masonry arch, usually sloping, to a solid pier or support that is sufficiently massive to receive the thrust.

buttress

[′bə·trəs]

(architecture)

An upright projection that supports or resists lateral forces in a building.

(botany)

A ridge of wood developed in the angle between a lateral root and the butt of a tree.

(civil engineering)

A pier constructed at right angles to a restraining wall on the side opposite to the restrained material; increases the strength and thrust resistance of the wall.

(paleontology)

A ridge on the inner surface of a pelecypod valve which acts as a support for part of the hinge.

buttress

buttresses

An exterior mass of masonry set at an angle to or bonded into a wall which it strengthens or supports; buttresses often absorb lateral thrusts from roof vaults. Also see flying buttress, hanging buttress.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Buttress

a transverse wall, a vertical projection or rib that reinforces the main supporting structure (primarily the outer wall of a building) and absorbs the horizontal pressure (the thrust from the arched ceiling, the pressure of the earth against the retaining walls, hydrostatic pressure against the foundation of a dam). The cross section usually increases toward the base of the wall (smoothly or with ledges). Against small horizontal thrusts, the cross sections can remain at one height. Buttresses can be made out of stone, concrete, or reinforced concrete. The stone buttress was one of the principal elements of Gothic structures. Buttresses are widely used to reinforce walls during the restoration of architectural monuments.

References in periodicals archive ?

As a tree ages, the stem grows in height and girth, the crown expands and the buttressing of trees increases.

Mean allocation of phytomass to buttressing (Table 2) is lower in the dry plantation site and among the cohort of nine younger trees in form C at the Big Cypress Access Area (Table 2, last column).

The increase in crown diameter of an individual tree tended to be correlated with an increase in the buttressing support ratio, suggesting the importance of gravitational forces in determining the relative size of buttressing.

Tree buttressing of form B, high buttresses, is dominant at Mermet Lake, which has nearly-permanent flooding and fluctuations in the water level.

Thus past hydrological regimes apparently favored baldcypress regeneration where water levels reached zero at Big Cypress Areas and influenced buttressing form.

This suggests the probable importance of age in concert with hydrological factors in determining the maximum values of buttress support ratios in old-growth forests, but greater influence of site hydrology on buttressing form and support ratio in younger stands.

Simple ratios of height/ (diameter at ground level--diameter above buttressing) yielded distinct, quantitative ranges corresponding with each buttress morphology type described in early references.