embrasure en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ɪmˈbɹeɪʒə(ɹ)/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
From French embrasure, from embras(er) + -ure, from Old French embrasure (“cut at a slant, make a groove or furrow”), from em- + braser (“cut at a slant”).
Meanings
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Any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement; an opening in a wall or parapet through which ordnance can be fired.
The walls are slitted with embrasures through which bowmen could fire, indicating that the belfry also served as a stronghold during border skirmishes.
1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 311, about the church at Pembridge:But there were less casualties than might have been expected, and the barricade rose steadily, a wall of concrete two feet thick, with embrasures for two machine-guns and a small field gun.
1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter VI, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:Near-synonym: crenel (sometimes hyponymous technically)
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(figuratively) Any small protected space.
She had a special seat there, a little embrasure between two upright slabs of sandstone, which was sheltered and private.
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 128:
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The slanting indentation in a wall for a door or window, such that the space is larger on the inside than the outside.
When the fit had spent itself he walked weakly to the window and, lifting the sash, sat in a corner of the embrasure and leaned his elbow upon the sill.
1916, James Joyce, chapter 3, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:Now he stands in a window embrasure, Liz's prayer book in hand.
2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 155:
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(obsolete) An embrace.
And suddenly; where injury of chance / Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by / All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips / Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents / Our lock'd embrasures, strangles our dear vows / Even in the birth of our own labouring breath:
c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| embrasures | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
Synonyms
Translations (33)
de Scharte (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · cy saethdwll (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · gl troneira (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · cy agorfa (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · ru бойни́ца (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · ar مَزْغَل (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · bg бо́йница (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · el μασγάλι (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · uk амбразу́ра (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · mk пушкарница (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · bg мазга́л (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · pt troneira (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · el σμαγδάλι (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · tr mazgal (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · fr ébrasure (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · ru амбразу́ра (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · sv embrasyr (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · fi embrasyyri (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · sh pùškārnica (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · es tronera (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · el πολεμίστρα (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · cmn 垛口 (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · fi ampuma-aukko (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · bg амбразу́ра (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · nl schietgat (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · fr embrasure (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · sh màzgāl (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · pl ambrazura (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · az mazğal (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · mk стрелачница (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · ca tronera (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · de Schießscharte (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement) · nrf êvilement (any of the indentations between the merlons of a battlement)