the lowest sill of a structure, placed on the foundation or directly on the ground
mudsill
mud·sillWebster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"mudsill." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/mudsill>.
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mudsill. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/mudsill
mudsill
noun
- The lowest sill supporting a building, resting directly on the foundation.
- A horizontal timber resting on the ground or on the bottom of a body of water, as to support a scaffold, dam, or bridge pier.
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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Cite this page
MLA Style
"mudsill." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/mudsill>.
APA Style
mudsill. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/mudsill
Noun
(plural mudsills)
- The lowest sill of a structure, usually placed in or on the ground.
- (figuratively) A particularly low or dirty place/state; the nadir of something (see rock bottom)
- "The Pre-Historic Era represented the mudsill of human development."
- (dated) A person of low status or humble provenance.
Origin
"1685, 'lowest sill of a house,' from mud + sill. The word entered U.S. political history in a speech by James M. Hammond of South Carolina, March 4, 1858, in U.S. Senate, alluding to the very mudsills of society, and the term subsequently was embraced by Northern workers in the pre-Civil War sectional rivalry." (OED, 2007)
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"mudsill." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/mudsill>.
APA Style
mudsill. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/mudsill
