PINNACLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pinnacle

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/pˈɪnəkəl/ Listen

noun

Pinnacle n.

(Arch.) An architectural member, upright, and generally ending in a small spire, used to finish a buttress, to constitute a part in a proportion, as where pinnacles flank a gable or spire, and the like. Pinnacles may be considered primarily as added weight, where it is necessary to resist the thrust of an arch, etc. "Some renowned metropolis With glistering spires and pinnacles around."

Anything resembling a pinnacle; a lofty peak; a pointed summit. "Three silent pinnacles of aged snow." "The slippery tops of human state, The gilded pinnacles of fate."

verb

Pinnacle v. t. (past & past part. pinnacled; pres. part. pinnacling) To build or furnish with a pinnacle or pinnacles.

See images of 'Pinnacle'

Etymology of 'Pinnacle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pinnacle" Quotes from Famous Books

... misty Lombard plain. The Castello burned like a hero's funeral pyre, and round its high-built turrets swallows circled in the warm blue air. On the moat slept shadows, mixed with flowers of sunset, tossed from pinnacle and gable. Then the sky changed. A roof of thunder-cloud spread overhead with the rapidity of tempest. The dying sun gathered his last strength against it, fretting those steel-blue arches with crimson; and all the fierce light, thrown from vault to vault of cloud, was reflected ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds

... the intensity of feeling which filled my breast. Knowing that every downward step was leading me rapidly toward a determination of my fate, I could scarcely control my emotions. Either I was soon to find my heart's life and be raised to the highest pinnacle of happiness, or I was to undergo a disappointment from which I might not recover. For if Mona was not here, where could I look for her? Could I ever regain my hopeful spirits if I should lose her now? I tried to crowd out these dark forebodings by thinking ...

— Daybreak: A Romance of an Old World • James Cowan

... if I have succeeded in showing them the ray of hope, in the midst of their suffering, that will give them courage to live, and live as healthy human beings, I shall feel amply rewarded for the hard work that had necessarily to be done before the present pinnacle in the art of ...

— Valere Aude - Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration • Louis Dechmann

... been promoted and was a full-fledged clerk now. There were many steps ahead for him, but he was going to climb them rung by rung; and what joy there is in drawing one's self up by one's own strength! I was at the top of my ladder—at the very pinnacle of learning in Black Log. Even now I was unfolding to the marvelling eyes of the children of the valley the mysteries of that great science, physical geography. I was explaining to them the trend of ...

— The Soldier of the Valley • Nelson Lloyd

... land a Doctor's Degree. He knew that any one who aspired to this Eminent Honor had to be a Pippin. But he hoped that he could make some Contribution to the World of Thought that would jar the whole Educational System and help him to climb to the topmost Pinnacle of ...

— People You Know • George Ade

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