buttress

but·tress

Use buttress in a sentence

Buttresses supporting an ancient building.

noun

The definition of a buttress is a support for a building usually made of brick or stone.
A stone wall built against a wall to support the building is an example of a buttress.

verb

To buttress is to provide support for a building, or to provide support and justification for an argument or idea.
1. When a wall is providing support for a building, this is an example of a situation where the wall is a buttress for the building.
2. When a fact supports a position or argument, this is an example of a fact that is a buttress for the argument.

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"buttress." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 21 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Buttress>.

APA Style

buttress. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21st, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Buttress

buttress

a projecting structure, generally of brick or stone, built against a wall to support or reinforce it
anything like a buttress; support or prop

Origin of buttress

Middle English boteras from Old French bouterez, plural of bouteret, flying buttress from buter: see butt

to support or reinforce with a buttress
to prop up; bolster

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MLA Style

"buttress." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 21 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Buttress>.

APA Style

buttress. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21st, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Buttress

buttress

noun

A structure, usually brick or stone, built against a wall for support or reinforcement.
Something resembling a buttress, as:
a. The flared base of certain tree trunks.
b. A horny growth on the heel of a horse's hoof.
Something that serves to support, prop, or reinforce: “The law is by its very nature a buttress of the status quo” ( J. William Fulbright )

transitive verb

but·tressed, but·tress·ing, but·tress·es

To support or reinforce with a buttress.
To sustain, prop, or bolster: “The author buttresses her analysis with lengthy dissections of several of Moore's poems” ( Warren Woessner )

Origin of buttress

Middle English buteras from Old French bouterez from bouter to strike against of Germanic origin ; see bhau- in Indo-European roots.

buttress

top: buttressed wall of the Savino-Storozhersky Monastery

Zvenigorod, Russia

bottom: buttresses of a tree in a Costa Rican rainforest

buttress

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"buttress." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 21 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Buttress>.

APA Style

buttress. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21st, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Buttress

Noun

(plural buttresses)

(architecture) A brick or stone structure built against another structure to support it.
Anything that serves to support something; a prop.
(botany) A buttress-root.
(climbing) A feature jutting prominently out from a mountain or rock; a crag, a bluff.
Crowell Buttresses, Dismal Buttress, Hourglass Buttress, Kardam Buttress, Seven Buttresses
(figuratively) Anything that supports or strengthens.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present buttresses, present participle buttressing, simple past and past participle buttressed)

To support something physically with, or as if with, a prop or buttress.
To support something or someone by supplying evidence; to corroborate or substantiate.

Origin

From Old French bouterés, nominative singular of bouteret, from Frankish *botan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push”). Ultimately cognate with beat.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.