PARAPET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does parapet mean? 

• PARAPET (noun)
  The noun PARAPET has 2 senses:

1. a low wall along the edge of a roof or balcony

2. fortification consisting of a low wall

  Familiarity information: PARAPET used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PARAPET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A low wall along the edge of a roof or balcony

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("parapet" is a kind of...):

wall (an architectural partition with a height and length greater than its thickness; used to divide or enclose an area or to support another structure)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fortification consisting of a low wall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

breastwork; parapet

Hypernyms ("parapet" is a kind of...):

fortification; munition (defensive structure consisting of walls or mounds built around a stronghold to strengthen it)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "parapet"):

machicolation (a projecting parapet supported by corbels on a medieval castle; has openings through which stones or boiling water could be dropped on an enemy)

 Context examples 

Somebody was leaning out of my bedroom window, refreshing his forehead against the cool stone of the parapet, and feeling the air upon his face.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I could gather together that I was able to avert another public exposure.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The two famous Germans stood beside the stone parapet of the garden walk, with the long, low, heavily gabled house behind them, and they looked down upon the broad sweep of the beach at the foot of the great chalk cliff in which Von Bork, like some wandering eagle, had perched himself four years before.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not satisfied with all these proceedings, but burning with impatience to do something more, I went to see Traddles, now lodging up behind the parapet of a house in Castle Street, Holborn.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)