Word of the Day

: February 20, 2024

buttress

noun BUTT-russ

What It Means

A buttress is a structure built against a wall in order to support or strengthen it. More broadly, buttress may refer to anything that supports or strengthens. Buttress may also refer to something that resembles a buttress, such as a projecting part of a mountain or hill, a horny protuberance on a horse's hoof at the heel, or the broadened base of a tree trunk or a thickened vertical part of it.

// After the wall collapsed, the construction company agreed to rebuild it with a buttress.

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buttress in Context

"Between November 2018 and May 2021, the glacier retreated eight kilometres as the ice shelf at the end of the glacier ... disappeared. The ice shelf would have acted as a buttress, slowing the movement of the glacier towards the sea." — The University of Leeds (environment.leeds.ac.uk), 29 Nov. 2023

Did You Know?

The word buttress first budded in the world of architecture during the 14th century, when it was used to describe an exterior support that projects from a wall to resist the sideways force, called thrust, created by the load on an arch or roof. The word ultimately comes from the Anglo-French verb buter, meaning "to thrust." Buter is also the source of our verb butt, meaning "to thrust, push, or strike with the head or horns." Buttress developed figurative use relatively soon after its adoption, being applied to anything that supports or strengthens something else. No buts about it: the world would not be the same without buttresses.