Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Arch   /ɑrtʃ/   Listen
noun
Arch  n.  
1.
(Geom.) Any part of a curved line.
2.
(Arch.)
(a)
Usually a curved member made up of separate wedge-shaped solids, with the joints between them disposed in the direction of the radii of the curve; used to support the wall or other weight above an opening. In this sense arches are segmental, round (i. e., semicircular), or pointed.
(b)
A flat arch is a member constructed of stones cut into wedges or other shapes so as to support each other without rising in a curve. Note: Scientifically considered, the arch is a means of spanning an opening by resolving vertical pressure into horizontal or diagonal thrust.
3.
Any place covered by an arch; an archway; as, to pass into the arch of a bridge.
4.
Any curvature in the form of an arch; as, the arch of the aorta. "Colors of the showery arch."
Triumphal arch, a monumental structure resembling an arched gateway, with one or more passages, erected to commemorate a triumph.


Arch  n.  A chief. (Obs.) "My worthy arch and patron comes to-night."


adjective
Arch  adj.  
1.
Chief; eminent; greatest; principal. "The most arch act of piteous massacre."
2.
Cunning or sly; sportively mischievous; roguish; as, an arch look, word, lad. "(He) spoke his request with so arch a leer."


verb
Arch  v. t.  (past & past part. arched; pres. part. arching)  
1.
To cover with an arch or arches.
2.
To form or bend into the shape of an arch. "The horse arched his neck."


Arch  v. i.  To form into an arch; to curve.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Arch" Quotes from Famous Books



... ducats to Montenegro, but stipulated they were to be used for charitable purposes under Russian control. Danilo was enraged by this as he wanted the cash himself. Medakovitch refused to give it him. "He regards as his friend him who gives him gold," says a contemporary; "who gives naught is his arch-enemy." Danilo continued negotiating with France, and Medakovitch carried the 5,000 ducats out of the country to the Russian ...
— Twenty Years Of Balkan Tangle • Durham M. Edith
... shame and insult Since she drew her baby breath, Were it strange to find her knocking At the cruel door of death? Were it strange if she should parley With the great arch fiend ...
— White Slaves • Louis A Banks
... his mind and fell to talking with Turlough and Cathbarr over their arrangements in case of an attack. In the midst, one of the men who had been watching from the tower ran in to say that he had caught sight of a beacon on the hills, which meant that the arch-enemy was ...
— Nuala O'Malley • H. Bedford-Jones
... felt rather affronted. Over there seemed a long way. Then it was clouding up and night was coming on. He went straight along, but now he was hungry, and his little legs ached. He had been instructed if he was ever lost to ask the way to Arch Street. So he ...
— A Modern Cinderella • Amanda M. Douglas
... her arm and rushed out of the room, not pausing till she had hurriedly gone far along the street, and found herself close to the church of the Badia. She had but to pass behind the curtain under the old stone arch, and she would find a sanctuary shut in from the noise and hurry of the street, where all objects and all uses suggested the thought of an eternal peace subsisting in the midst ...
— Romola • George Eliot


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com