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Bolster vs Buttress - What's the difference?

bolster | buttress |

Buttress is a synonym of bolster.



In architecture terms the difference between bolster and buttress

is that bolster is the rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital while buttress is a brick or stone structure built against another structure to support it.

As nouns the difference between bolster and buttress

is that bolster is a large cushion or pillow while buttress is a brick or stone structure built against another structure to support it.

As verbs the difference between bolster and buttress

is that bolster is to brace, reinforce, secure, or support while buttress is to support something physically with, or as if with, a prop or buttress.

bolster

English

Alternative forms

* * (Scotland)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A large cushion or pillow.
  • * Shakespeare
  • And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster , / This way the coverlet, another way the sheets.
  • A pad, quilt, or anything used to hinder pressure, support part of the body, or make a bandage sit easy upon a wounded part; a compress.
  • * John Gay
  • This arm shall be a bolster for thy head.
  • A small spacer located on top of the axle of horse-drawn wagons which give the front wheels enough clearance to turn.
  • A short, horizontal, structural timber between a post and a beam for enlarging the bearing area of the post and/or reducing the span of the beam. Sometimes also called a pillow or cross-head (Australian English).
  • The perforated plate in a punching machine on which anything rests when being punched.
  • The part of a knife blade that abuts upon the end of the handle.
  • The metallic end of a pocketknife handle.
  • (label) The rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital.
  • A block of wood on the carriage of a siege gun, upon which the breech of the gun rests when arranged for transportation.
  • Synonyms

    * Dutch wife

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To brace, reinforce, secure, or support.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    buttress

    Noun

    (es)
  • (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.
  • * 2005 , Will Cook, Until Darkness Disappears , page 54:
  • All that day they rode into broken land. The prairie with its grass and rolling hills was behind them, and they entered a sparse, dry, rocky country, full of draws and short caƱons and ominous buttresses .
  • * 2010 , Tony Howard, Treks and Climbs in Wadi Rum, Jordan , ISBN-13: 9781852842543, page 84:
  • Two short pitches up a chimney-crack are followed by a traverse right to the centre of the buttress .
  • (figurative) Anything that supports or strengthens.
  • * South
  • the ground pillar and buttress of the good old cause of nonconformity

    Derived terms

    * flying buttress

    Synonyms

    * counterfort

    See also

    * nunatak

    Verb

    (es)
  • 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.