| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| buttress |
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| SYLLABICATION: | but·tress |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b t r s |
| NOUN: | 1. A structure, usually brick or stone, built against a wall for support or reinforcement. 2. 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. 3. 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: | Inflected forms: but·tressed, but·tress·ing, but·tress·es
1. To support or reinforce with a buttress. 2. To sustain, prop, or bolster: “The author buttresses her analysis with lengthy dissections of several of Moore's poems” (Warren Woessner). | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English buteras, from Old French bouterez, from bouter, to strike against, of Germanic origin. See bhau- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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