vault

vault¹

—vaultlike, adj.

/vawlt/, n.

1. an arched structure, usually made of stones, concrete, or bricks, forming a ceiling or roof over a hall, room, sewer, or other wholly or partially enclosed construction.

2. an arched structure resembling a vault.

3. a space, chamber, or passage enclosed by a vault or vaultlike structure, esp. one located underground.

4. an underground chamber, as a cellar or a division of a cellar.

5. a room or compartment, often built of or lined with steel, reserved for the storage and safekeeping of valuables, esp. such a place in a bank.

6. a strong metal cabinet, usually fireproof and burglarproof, for the storage and safekeeping of valuables, important papers, etc.

7. a burial chamber.

8. Anat. an arched roof of a cavity.

9. something likened to an arched roof: the vault of heaven.

v.t.

10. to construct or cover with a vault.

11. to make in the form of a vault; arch.

12. to extend or stretch over in the manner of an arch; overarch: An arbor vaulted the path.

13. to store in a vault: The paintings will be vaulted when the museum is closed.

v.i.

14. to curve or bend in the form of a vault.

[1300-50; (n.) alter. of ME voute < OF vou(l)te, volte < VL *volvita, for L voluta, n. use of fem. ptp. of L volvere to turn (see REVOLVE); (v.) alter. of ME vouten < OF vou(l)ter, volter, deriv. of vou(l)te, volte]

vault²

—vaulter, n.

/vawlt/, v.i.

1. to leap or spring, as to or from a position or over something: He vaulted over the tennis net.

2. to leap with the hands supported by something, as by a horizontal pole.

3. Gymnastics. to leap over a vaulting or pommel horse, using the hands for pushing off.

4. to arrive at or achieve something as if by a spring or leap: to vault into prominence.

v.t.

5. to leap over: to vault a fence.

6. to cause to leap over or surpass others: Advertising has vaulted the new perfume into first place.

n.

7. the act of vaulting.

8. a leap of a horse; curvet.

9. Gymnastics. a running jump over a vaulting or pommel horse, usually finishing with an acrobatic dismount.

[1530-40; < F volte a turn and volter to turn, respectively < It volta (n.) and voltare (v.); see VOLT²]

Syn. 1. See jump.

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In building construction, an arched structure forming a ceiling or roof.

The masonry vault exerts the same kind of thrust as the arch, and must be supported along its entire length by heavy walls with limited openings. The basic barrel vault, in effect a continuous series of arches, first appeared in ancient Egypt and the Middle East. Roman architects discovered that two barrel vaults intersecting at right angles (a groin vault) could, when repeated in series, span rectangular areas of unlimited length. Because the groin vault's thrusts are concentrated at the four corners, its supporting walls need not be massive. Medieval European builders developed the rib vault, a skeleton of arches or ribs on which the masonry could be laid. The fan vault, popular in the English Perpendicular style, used fan-shaped clusters of tracery-like ribs springing from pendants or columns. The 19th century saw the use of large iron skeletons as frameworks for vaults of lightweight materials (see Crystal Palace). An important modern innovation is the reinforced-concrete shell vault, which, if its length is three or more times its transverse section, behaves as a deep beam and exerts no lateral thrust.

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▪ architecture

 in building construction, a structural member consisting of an arrangement of arches, usually forming a ceiling or roof.

      The basic barrel (barrel vault) form, which appeared first in ancient Egypt and the Middle East, is in effect a continuous series of arches deep enough to cover a three-dimensional space. It exerts the same kind of thrust as the circular arch and must be buttressed along its entire length by heavy walls with limited openings.

      Roman architects discovered that two barrel vaults that intersected at right angles formed a groin vault, which, when repeated in series, could span rectangular areas of unlimited length. Because the groin vault's thrusts are concentrated at all four corners, its supporting walls need not be massive and require buttressing only where they support the vault. The groin vault, however, requires great precision in stone cutting, an art that declined in the West with the fall of Rome. Vaulting was continued and improved in the Byzantine Empire and in the Islamic world.

      Medieval European builders developed a modification, the rib vault, a skeleton of arches or ribs on which the masonry could be laid. The medieval mason used pointed arches; unlike round arches, these could be raised as high over a short span as over a long one. To cover rectangular areas, the mason used two intersecting vaults of different widths but of the same height.

      Nineteenth-century builders, using new materials, could construct large iron skeletons as frameworks for vaults of lightweight materials—for example, the glass-vaulted Crystal Palace of the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. Because the new materials eliminated weight and thrust problems, the simple barrel vault returned to favour for such structures as railroad terminals and exhibition halls. In many modern frame systems the vault has lost its functional significance and become a thin skin laid over a series of arches. The reinforced-concrete shell vault, a bent or molded slab, is an important innovation. The steel-reinforced shell exerts no lateral thrust and may be supported as if it were a beam.

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