Definition of Squinch

1. Verb. Crouch down.

Generic synonyms: Bend, Bow, Crouch, Stoop

2. Noun. A small arch built across the interior angle of two walls (usually to support a spire).
Generic synonyms: Arch
Specialized synonyms: Trumpet Arch

3. Verb. Draw back, as with fear or pain. "She flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf"
Exact synonyms: Cringe, Flinch, Funk, Quail, Recoil, Shrink, Wince
Generic synonyms: Move
Specialized synonyms: Retract, Shrink Back
Derivative terms: Flinch, Wince, Wince

4. Verb. Cross one's eyes as if in strabismus. "The children squinted so as to scare each other"
Exact synonyms: Squint
Generic synonyms: Grimace, Make A Face, Pull A Face
Derivative terms: Squint, Squinter

Definition of Squinch

1. n. A small arch thrown across the corner of a square room to support a superimposed mass, as where an octagonal spire or drum rests upon a square tower; -- called also sconce, and sconcheon.

Definition of Squinch

1. Noun. (architecture) A structure constructed between two adjacent walls to aid in the transition from a polygonal to a circular structure; as when a dome is constructed on top of a square room. ¹

2. Verb. to scrunch up (one's face) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Squinch

1. to squint [v -ED, -ING, -ES] - See also: squint

Lexicographical Neighbors of Squinch

squill
squill-gee
squill-gees
squilla
squillae
squillas
squillion
squillionaire
squillionaires
squillions
squillitic
squills
squinancy
squinancywort
squinantic
squinch (current term)
squinched
squinches
squinching
squinied
squinies
squink
squinks
squinnied
squinnier
squinnies
squinniest
squinny
squinnying
squinsies

Literary usage of Squinch

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Medieval Architecture: Its Origins and Development, with Lists of Monuments by Arthur Kingsley Porter (1908)
"squinch of Omm-es-Zeitoun (c. 282 AD) (From Rivoira, ... This device is known as a squinch (111. 74). Obviously the smaller the scale and the larger the ..."

2. Burgess Unabridged: A New Dictionary of Words You Have Always Needed by Gelett Burgess (1914)
"squinch, v. To watch and wait, hoping things will turn one's own way; to anticipate. No squinch like the sailor's, sniffing the weather from the ..."

3. Gothic Architecture in France, England, and Italy by Thomas Graham Jackson (1915)
"An obvious improvement was to alter the form of the broach to a gable, which fitted the squinch arch better, and by saving material did not load it so much. ..."

4. Irish Ecclesiastical Architecture: With Some Notice of Similar Or Related by Arthur Charles Champneys (1910)
"As a matter of fact, the masonry of the Tower below the squinch shews no sign of having ... The arches forming the squinch have suffered a little (probably, ..."

5. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1920)
"And, as before stated, with the ribbed vault we enter the Gothic era. The dome had for its support pendentives, either the spherical or the "squinch" (see ..."

6. Architecture and Urbanization in Colonial Chiapas, Mexico by Sidney David Markman (1984)
"The ribs were applied to the surface of the squinch, and so are actually decorative rather than structural. The cluster of ribs emerging from the bracket ..."

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